THE  1  [BRARY 


THE  UNIVERSITY 


OF  CALIFORNIA 


LOS  ANGELES 


(ft 


A. 


THE 


GOLDEN    DAGON; 


OK, 


UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI. 


BEING 


f assap  flf  Jrttetaw  in  t\t  furman 


BY 

AN    AMERICAN. 


NEW  YORK : 
DIX,    EDWARDS    &    CO. 

1856. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  iu  the  year  1856,  by 

DIX,    EDWARDS    &    CO., 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for 
the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


MILLER    &    HOLMAN, 

Printers  &  Stereotypers,  N.  Y. 


3s  i 


WITH   NO   LESS   GRATITUDE   THAN   AFFECTION, 

I  DEDICATE  THIS  BOOK 

TO   MY    WIFE. 


515267 

I  1R  CPTS 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER    I. 

PAGE 

Hong-Kong — The  Bore — Ay-Chung — Kumpny's  But- 
tons    ',- » .        .      1 

CHAPTER    II. 

Singapore — The  Malays'  Vengeance    .        .  .14 

CHAPTER   III. 

The  Straits  of  Malacca— A  tame  Myth        .        .        .26 

CHAPTER    IV. 

Penang — Running  Amok 30 

CHAPTER    V. 

What  we  were  going  to  fight  about     .        .        .        .33 

CHAPTER   VI. 

The  Ghaut  at  Moulmein — Palkee-Garrees — Steam  vs. 
Elephant  .     j  .  :      .        .       .        .        .        .  41 

CHAPTER   VII. 

Moulmein — Town  and  Cantonments     .        .        .       .51 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

Elephant-back—"  Old  Injin-Rubber  "—The  Boa— The 
Caves— Guadma — The  Bats 57 

CHAPTER    IX. 
Dacoitees — A  Burmese  House 73 


Viii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    X. 

PAGE 

Honorable  John  and  Dishonorable  John — "  The  Old 
Taller  " — The  Fighting  Missionary — Our  first  Stock- 
ade—A  Hero  '  .  .  .  78 

CHAPTER    XI. 

Our  Burmese  Clients — War-boats — A  funny  Panic       .    92 

CHAPTER    XII. 

"  All  Together,  Engage  the  Enemy  !" — The  Storming 
of  Rangoon  and  Dallah — The  Swimmer's  Charm  .  100 

CHAPTER    XIII. 

Kemmendine — Fire  Rafts — Confiding  Creatures! — A 
Wooden  Gun — The  Stockade — The  Aspect  and  the 
Voices  of  the  Night — Rangoon  is  ours — Bathing 
under  Difficulties .  -  .  105 

CHAPTER    XIV. 

Magnanimous! — The  Stockades  of  Rangoon — The 
Streets — The  Machinery  of  Boodhisin — The  Golden 
Dagon — The  Great  and  Little  Bells — Boodh  and 
"  Baccy  " — The  Ingathering — Young  Shway-Madoo  115 

CHAPTER   XV. 

The  Lotos-Tanks—Testing  the  Water— The  Poonghee- 
House— Black  Art  .  .  .  '  I  i  *•  .  127 

CHAPTER    XVI. 

A  Prize  and  a  Prisoner — Plenipotentiary  Abdoolah — 
His  Character  and  Costume — Sticks  and  Chickens — 
The  great  Battle  of  Pontalong  .  .  .  .132 

CHAPTER    XVII. 

Our  Miracles — The  Fisherman's  Butcha — The  Tribute 
of  Rotten  Eggs — Blowing  up  a  Poonghee  .  .  144 


CONTENTS.  ix 

CHAPTER   XVIII. 

PAGE 

The  Boodh 152 

CHAPTER    XIX 

Doouoobyoo — The  Grave  of  the  Maha  Bandoola — 
His  Talipot  Tree— His  Plutarch— The  Story  of 
Zinguza 156 

CHAPTER    XX. 
•Shelling  the  Woons 168 

CHAPTER    XXI. 

Our  Convoy — The  Dacoits'  Ambush — Lynching  Fra 
Diavolo — The  wounded  Women — Theen-gyee  .  .  173 

CHAPTER   XXII. 

Young  Ingeeboo — His  Shadows — His  Tattoo      .        .  183 

CHAPTER    XXIII. 

The  Pagoda  Road — Poonghee  and  Missionary — The 
Bazaar — Disemboweling  the  gods — Burmese  Venera- 
tion . 190 

CHAPTER    XXIV. 

The  Sports  of  the  Grove— Foot-ball— Puppets— The 
Drama — A  Burmese  Rachel 196 

CHAPTER   XXV. 

Mindakeen — One  little  romance  of  a  Shoulder-Strap, 
and  another  of  Paijamas  .  .  .  .  •  .  .  205 

CHAPTER   XXVI. 

An  Experiment — Bandoola's  Bluff — Giving  a  little 
Hero  the  Slip 211 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XXVII. 

PAGE 

Prorae — The  Ladies — An  indignant  Bloomer — Surpris- 
ing a  great  General — Astonishing  Him    .        .        .  215 

CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

The  Oath  and  Imprecations — Maidens,  Wives,  Concu- 
bines, and  Prostitutes       .       ._../<.-..        .        .        .223 

CHAPTER   XXIX. 

How  it  seems  to  own  a  Woraan^-Little  Mayouk — Her 
adventures       •       V      -."  '"•-"•'    .'.".'      .        .232 

CHAPTER   XXX. 
My  adventure  at  Pegu 237 


APPENDIX. 
I. 

The  Golden  Dagon  in  1590          .        .        .        .        .293 

II. 

The  Karens         .        .        .    •    .        .        .        .        .  295 

III. 

The  Poonghees    .-  ' '  '  V     .        .  •  "••'"•     ,        .    *    .  301 

IV. 

Burmese  Law      .  304 

V. 

Imperial  Pegu _.'        .310 


"  Next  came  one 

Who  rnourn'd  in  earnest,  when  the  captive  ark 
Maim'd  his  brute  image,  head  and  hands  lopt  off 
In  his  own  temple,  on  the  grunsel  edge, 
Where  he  fell  flat  and  sham'd  his  worshippers ; 
Dagon  his  name ;  sea  monster,  upward  man 
And  downward  fish ;  yet  had  his  temple  high 
Rear'd  in  Azotus,  dreaded  through  the  coast 
Of  Palestine,  in  Gath,  and  Ascalon, 
And  Accaron,  and  Gaza's  frontier  bounds." 

MILTON  :  Paradise  Lost. 

"  If  you  would  see  our  pagodas,  come  as  friends,  and  I  will  show 
them  to  you.    If  you  come  as  enemies — LAND. 

THE  MAHA  BANDOOLA  to  Gen.  Willoughby  Cotton. 


THE    GOLDEN    DAGON; 

OR, 


CHAPTER  I. 

HONG-KONG THE    BORE — AY-CHUNG KUMPNY's    BUTTONS. 

WE  kept  lonesome  companionship  together, 
my  cheroot  and  I,  in  the  verandah  of  Brooks's 
in  Hong-Kong. 

Up  a  narrow  climbing  court,  a  score  or  two 
of  yards  off  the  main  street,  and  hard  by  the 
gate  of  the  Bishop's  Palace,  Brooks's  was  a 
famous  house  for  reflection  and  billiards,  and  a 
bad  (that  is,  a  good)  one  for  fleas — especially 
poor  in  prospect. 

But  it  had  one  evident  advantage — it  with- 
drew, as  it  were,  from  the  town,  affording  you 
a  respite  from  your  Hong-Kong,  and  permitting 
you  by  snatches  to  dream  that  you  were  out  of 

it :  out  of  its  swarms  of  entomological  coolies 
1 


2  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

and  infectious  beggars ;  its  white  heat  and  its 
brown  rascals  ;  its  odious  incense  of  joss-stick 
and  opium  pipes  ;  its  jargon  and  jostle  of  foot- 
pad peddlers  and  piratical  tankaraen ;  its  cheer- 
ful chain-gang ;  its  sweaty  chair-bearers ;  its  red- 
hot  umbrellas ;  and  all  the  rest  of  noise,  and 
filth,  and  bad  smells,  and  vermin,  and  corner 
monstrosities  of  tumors,  and  ulcers,  and  cher- 
ished boils,  and  cultivated  sores. 

For  a  brief  and  blessed  season  you  had  es- 
caped from  your  last  accursed  cripple — from 
the  elephantiasis  that  had  chased  you  round  the 
corner,  and  the  white  leprosy  that  just  missed 
you  as  you  dived  through  the  door  of  the  nine- 
pin  alley  and  fled  up  the  narrow  stairs,  putting 
Brooks  and  his  garrison  between  you  and  all 
the  Flowery  Kingdom. 

Brooks's  is  eminently  a  house  to  get  away 
to  ;  and  after  the  first  three  days  of  my  fore- 
taste in  Hong-Kong  of  that  town^s  infernal 
counterpart,  I  blessed  mine  inn,  as  though  I 
were  Dives  and  had  suddenly  come  upon  a 
dewy  bower,  in  among  the  brimstone,  where 
something  could  be  had  to  drink. 

I   had   "done"    my  Hong-Kong — Consul's, 


OR,    UP    AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  3 

Comprador's,  Custom-House,  Club-House,  G-ov- 
ernment-House,  Joss-House,  Parade  ground, 
Barracks,  Library,  Bishop's  Palace,  Cathedral ; 
and  four  features  of  the  place  had  struck  me — 
the  sameness  of  the  natives,  the  ferocity  of  the 
Sun,  the  indispensability  of  punkas,  and  the 
universal  bore  :  The  sameness  of  the  natives — 
whether  the  specimen  under  examination  were 
man  or  woman,  of  fifteen  or  fifty — whether  it 
were  the  same  pig-eyed  pertinacity  who  had 
played  shadow  to  me  ever  since  I  landed,  or  a 
fresh  one  whom  I  now  beheld  for  the  first  time — 
merry  or  miserable,  bright  or  stupid  :  the  fero- 
city of  the  Sun,  like  a  fiery  dragon  filling  the 
air  with  his  scorching  breath  and*  wallowing  in 
flames  :  the  indispensability  of  fans,  pendulating 
in  every  apartment,  from  the  smoky  den  where- 
in your  fat  comprador  compliments  you  in  sour 
claret,  to  the  high  hall  of  the  Cathedral,  where 
"  Joseph  Victoria,  Esq." — as  a  compatriot  of 
mine  once  addressed  the  Lord  Bishop — offers 
public  proposals  for  the  saving  of  your  soul — 
a  fan  waving  in  the  hand  of  every  Hong- Kong 
citizen,  from  the  greasy,  bare-backed  bearer 
who  grunts  along  with  your  palankeen,  to  the 


4  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON  ; 

illustrious  "  Fan-qui"  who  represents  Her  au- 
gust Britannic  Majesty  in  those  lovely  latitudes, 
in  her  name  disposing  of  pirates,  dispensing 
opium,  and  "  opening  China"  generally,  over 
his  tiffin :  the  universal  bore — the  endemic 
Hong-Kong  yawn,  unmitigated  by  billiards  or 
the  Overland  Mail,  uninterrupted  by  a  fire. 

My  adventures  had  been  neither  many,  nor 
choice:  to  climb  the  granite  back  of  the 
town,  where  the  streets  are  cut  in  stairs,  to  the 
house  of  a  Company's  Servant,  whose  wife — a 
gas-lighty  ballet  girl  on  furlough — was  addicted 
to  gin  and  water,  and  sempiternal  whist;  to 
penetrate,  impelled  by  reckless  curiosity,  into 
the  inner  temple  of  a  gambling  house  on  the 
Victoria  Eoad,  whither  multitudinous,  parti- 
colored lanterns,  and  the  file-and-saw  treble 
of  flowery  song  had  attracted  me,  and  where 
some  retired  assassins  were  playing  a  sort  of 
Chinese  "  Simon  says  wiggle-waggle"  for  sam- 
shu  ;  to  make  a  complimentary  call  on  Ay- 
Chung,  the  loose  beauty  of  the  long-tailed 
Upper  Ten  :  these  constituted  the  sum  of  my 
excitements — or  may  I  add  a  cobra  decaudated 
in  Brooks's  Compound,  and  an  ugly  dog  dis- 


OE,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IERAWADDI.  5 

comfited  in  single  combat  in  the  Bishop's 
.grounds — achievements,  both,  of  which  I  was  a 
part? 

Ay-Chung,  lotos-lipped,  and  lush !  Truly, 
for  her  sake,  I  could  find  it  in  my  heart  to 
treat  Hong-Kong  to  an  amiable  parenthesis. 
A  comely  maiden,  and  a  comfortable,  was  that 
feminine  fly  in  amber ;  not  pig-eyed,  she — 
Juno  herself  not  more  ox-eyed ;  nor  flat-nosed 
and  slack-nostriled,  but  especially  race-horsy 
in  those  particulars ;  not  leathery  as  to  her 
'  complexion,  but  olive-dyed  and  blush-mantled, 
and  necked  like  Solomon's  spouse.  And  then 
her  smile,  her  waist,  her  foot!  either  would 
have  made  the  fortune  of  Archilla  Sarsaparilla, 
on  Broadway. 

To  hear  Ay-Chung  talk  broken  China  was 
to  forget  Hong-Kong,  and  cease  to  wish  you 

were  dead. 

» 

"  Ay-Chung,"  sighed  my  devoted  friend,  Da 
Souza,  of  the  Kumpny's  service,  whose  acquaint- 
ance I  had  made  nearly  three  hours  before, 
"  Ay-Chung,  wont  you  marry  me  ?" 

It  was  Ay-Chung's  pleasure  to  make  answer 
that  she  was  indisposed  (in  respect  of  my  bo- 


6  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

som  friend's  society)  and  in  no  humor  for 
nonsense,  but  that  her  sister  was  open  to 
overtures  towards  an  honorable  alliance,  and 
sophisticated  in  the  forms  of  such  business. 
Accordingly  the  Nourmahal  of  Hong-Kong 
delivered  her  meaning  in  the  following  mel- 
lifluous gibberish: 

"  Mi  no  savee  that  pigeon ;  mi  too  muchee 
seeckee  insidee ;  spose  you  likee  more  ploppa, 
can  ketchee  my  seesta ;  he  savee  that  pigeon 
all  ploppa — can  do." 

But  even  Ay-Chung  was  but  as  curry  to  the 
dry  rice  of  the  Hong-Kong  fare,  and  even  her 
spiciness  could  not  long  continue  to  make  its 
insipidities  appetizing.  So  I  withdrew  with- 
in my  cheroot,  and  entertained  myself  with 
wondering  what  would  come  next. 

The  North  Star,  which  had  brought  me 
hither  from  California,  by  way  of  the  Hawaiian 
Islands,  had  gone  to  Macao  to  "  tea,"  and 
would  not  return  until  after  many  days.  I 
was  left  alone  in  China — a  situation  more 
picturesque  than  pleasant;  my  nearest  friend 
was  six  thousand  miles  off,  and  my  dearest, 
twice  as  far.  As  Fanny  Kemble  used  to  say — 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  7 

first  I  billiarded,  and  then  I  verandahed,  and 
then  I  nine-pinned,  and  now  and  then  I  tanka- 
boated,  and  sometimes  I  native-quartered,  and 
all  the  time  I  cherooted. 

One  afternoon,  as  I  sat  alone  in  the  spacious 
verandah — cheroot  going,  and  legs,  American- 
wise,  reared  up  against  the  lattice,  thinking 
how  poor  I  was,  and  how  little  I  cared  for  that, 
and  how  funny  it  was  to  be  at  one's  heart's 
antipodes,  and  how  slow  "  something"  was  in 
"  turning  up" — a  Bengalee  Kitmudgar,  whose 
business  it  was  to  back  my  chair  at  tiffin,  and 
browbeat  the  Chinaman  whose  business  it  was 
not  to  fetch  my  ale,  announced  a  "  Kumpny 
Sahib,"  and  at  the  same  time  handed  me  the 
card  of  "  George  J.  Neblitt,  H.C.S." 

The  gentleman  followed  his  name — a  de- 
cidedly good-looking,  well-dressed  person,  of 
forty  or  thereabouts — perhaps  younger;  pre- 
possessing, and  very  conscious  of  it ;  a  lady's 
man  on  the  face  of  him;  the  self-defensive 
reserve  of  the  Englishman  relaxed  somewhat 
by  the  sailor. 

Bayard  Taylor  says  if  bear-skins  and  blankets 
were  the  fashion  in  the  West-End,  the  true 


8  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON; 

Cockney  would  sport  them  in  Ceylon ;  and  by 
the  same  token  my  visitor  ignored  palm-leaves 
and  the  ventilated  sola,  and  made  himself  hot 
and  happy  in  a  silk  hat.  He  had  evidently 
been  doing  his  calls  of  duty  and  compliment, 
for  he  was  not  yet  at  peace  with  his  finger-nails, 
whose  purity  was  plainly  too  recent  to  be  safe. 
A  light-blue  frock  of  silk,  trowsers  (not  panta- 
loons) of  the  same,  a  white  Marseilles  vest,  a 
black  tie,  voluminous  and  carefully  careless, 
white  stockings  on  feet  of  gentlemanly  dimen- 
sions, and  dainty  shoes  of  patent  leather, 
plainly  of  Chinese  make — these  composed  an 
outer  man  more  than  commonly  agreeable.  A 
few  gilt  buttons,  bearing  the  Company's  crown 
and  lion,  on  coat  and  vest,  were  all  that  denoted 
his  profession  ;  nothing  signified  his  rank. 

He  proceeded  at  once  to  business. 

The  gallant  Captain  (for  such  he  was)  had 
the  honor  to  command  the  Honorable  Company's 
Steam  Vessel,  Phlegethon,  then  on  her  return  to 
Calcutta  from  an  expedition  in  the  China  Seas, 
to  destroy  piratical  junks,  and  disperse  the 
long-tailed  Buccaneers,  who,  in  those  waters, 
overhaul  honest  merchantmen,  and  take  lives 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  9 

as  well  as  toll.  She  lay  at  that  moment  in 
the  harbor,  in  sight  of  Brooks's  windows,  de- 
tained by  an  untimely  accident. 

Her  Surgeon,  returning  from  a  dinner  party 
on  board  a  Peninsular  and  Oriental  Company's 
Steamer,  late  on  a  dark  night,  had  slipped 
overboard  and  was  drowned.  Captain  Neblitt 
had  a  large  and  sickly  crew,  the  worse  for  a 
protracted  season  of  hard  work  and  privation 
His  orders  from  the  Admiral  were  imperative, 
not  to  proceed  without  a  surgeon.  Although 
there  were  several  English  men-of-war  in  port, 
the  sanitary  condition  of  the  squadron  required 
the  constant  attention  of  all  its  medical  officers, 
consequently  none  could  be  spared  to  the  Phle- 
gethon.  Wherefore,  the  Captain  had  been  beat- 
ing the  town  in  the  hope  of  finding  some  starving 
'  poticary,  willing  to  be  a  Company's  servant  for 
the  nonce,  for  the  ecstasy  of  being  his  own 
master  thereafter — or  some  erratic  Sawbones, 
like  myself,  with  a  turn  for  traveling  and  no 
care  for  the  morrow.  If  this  last  would  suit 
him,  I  was  his  man ;  and  so,  indeed,  my  fame 
had  gone  abroad,  for  a  Dr.  Barton,  whoever  he 

was,  had  sent  the  Captain,  in  his  troubles,  to 
I* 


10  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

me,  as  an  up-to-any thing  circumnavigating  the 
globe. 

"  Was  I  a  physician  ?" 

"  I  was." 

"  And  a  surgeon  also?" 

"  Yes." 

"  Had  I  ship-board,  experience  ?" 

"  I  had." 

"  Was  I  prepared  to  join,  and  enter  upon  my 
duties,  at  once  ?" 

"  Yes." 

"  It  was  then  three  o'clock ;  I  should  have 
to  report  myself  at  nine ;  he  would  sail  at  day- 
break for  Calcutta  ?" 

"  So  much  the  better." 

"Then  it  was  a  bargain." 

"Perhaps.  But  softly,  Captain — you  will 
require  to  know  who  I  am." 

"  Of  course,  some  form  of  introduction  ;  you 
will  give  me  one  or  two  good  names — or  we 
shall  presently  meet  some  of  your  friends — or  we 
will  call  together  on  some  merchant  or  Com- 
pany's servant.  Who  do  you  know  ?" 

"No  one." 

"  Ah  !  In  Hong  Kong— but  in  China  ?" 


OK,    UP    AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  11 

4 'Not  a  soul." 

"  How  !— You  are  English  ?" 

"No." 

"  What  then  ?" 

"  Yankee." 

"  Ah,  indeed,  Sir — happy  to  make  your  ac- 
quaintance— greatly  obliged  for  the  prompt 
offer  of  your  valuable  services.  But  the  case  is 
peculiar;  I  can  remember  no  precedent  for  the 
appointment  of  your  countrymen  to  surgeoncies 
in  our  service  ;  you  will  allow  me  to  get  further 
instructions  from  the  Admiral.  Of  course  you 
have  at  hand  the  highest  testimonials  of  profes- 
sional qualification  ?" 

"  Not  a  line." 

"Your  diploma?" 

"  When  I  last  beheld  it — about  three  months 
after  I  came  into  possession,  in  due  course  of 
humbug,  of  that  costly  piece  of  parchment — a 
nigger  baby  in  Virginia  was  playing  with  the 
red  seal,  and  had  taken  the  blue  ribbon  to  dress 
up  his  kitten  with." 

"Extraordinary  people!  Really,  I'm  quite 
at  a  loss,  Sir.  What  have  you  to  propose  ?" 

"  Enough,  I  hope,  to  extricate  you  from  your 


12  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

dilemma. — Being  two  chivalrous  Anglo-Saxons, 
we  will  gallantly  waive  the  nationalities  and 
dispose  of  the  American  part  of  me  by  a  brave 
stroke  of  courtesy.  By  a  like  argument,  you 
will  take  my  gentleman-status  for  granted  ;  and 
as  for  the  professional  attainments,  it  will  be 
the  easiest  thing  for  the  Admiral  to  convene  a 
board  of  Examiners,  composed  of  his  own  sur- 
geons, aboard  his  ship  this  afternoon.  I  will 
meet  them  promptly  and  they  can  try  my  medi- 
cal pretensions  off  hand." 

This  proposition  the  Captain  pronounced 
"  highly  American."  Whether  he  meant  a  com- 
pliment or  the  reverse,  he  forgot  to  explain ; 
perhaps  it  was  the  enterprise  he  meant — per- 
haps the  impudence ;  at  all  events,  he  hurried 
off  to  lay  this  "  highly  American"  plan  before 
the  Admiral. 

Meantime  I  strolled  into  the  billiard  room 
where  some  English  officers  were  knocking  the 
balls  about,  and  at  the  first  table,  cue  in  hand, 
recognized  a  senior  surgeon  attached  to  the 
American  Japan  Expedition.  He  was  waiting 
the  arrival  of  his  Commodore,  and  had  just  come 
down  from  Macao,  yi  the  nick  of  time  to  answer 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  13 

for  me ;  for  though  not  personally  acquainted 
with  each  other,  my  connections  and  ante- 
cedents were  not  unknown  to  him.  On  hear- 
ing my  story  he  kindly  dispatched  a  handsome 
note  to  the  English  Fleet  Surgeon,  adding  to 
mine  his  own  request  for  an  examination. 

At  dusk  Captain  Neblitt  returned,  bringing 
my  appointment  to  his  ship ;  the  Admiral  dis- 
pensed with  preliminary  forms.  Before  nine 
o'clock  I  had  reported  myself  on  board  and  gone 
the  sick  rounds.  After  that  I  returned  to  the 
town,  and  climbed  the  back  streets  in  the  moon- 
light alone. 

I  hope  Ay-Chung  slept. 


14  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 


CHAPTER  II. 

SINGAPORE — THE   MALAYS'   VENGEANCE. 

AT  dawn  I  rejoined  my  ship.  The  men  were 
already  heaving  away  at  the  anchor. 

The  Phlegethon  was  a  small  flat-bottomed  iron 
steamer  of  very  light  draught,  carrying  two  im- 
proved thirty-twos  on  bull-rings  fore  and  aft, 
two  eighteens  on  a  side,  and  two  rocket  tubes 
on  the  bridge — or  elevated  deck,  between  the 
paddle-boxes.  Her  ship's  company  numbered 
about  two  hundred,  all  told,  one-fourth  of  whom 
were  Lascars  and  Malays,  employed  as  stokers 
and  coal-trimmers,  but  good  and  trusty  men, 
(especially  the  Malays),  when  their  fighting 
qualities  were  in  request.  She  was  admirably 
adapted  for  any  description  of  service  requiring 
vessels  of  light  draught,  celerity  of  movement, 
and  facility  of  management. 

In  the  subsequent  operations  in  Burmah,  she 
was  at  once  tender,  pioneer,  pilot  and  messen- 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN    THE   IRRAWADDI.  15 

ger  for  the  larger  ships  of  Her  Majesty's  and 
the  Indian  navies,  and,  as  will  appear  hereafter, 
she,  and  those  she  carried,  lacked  nothing  of 
various  exciting  employment  and  isolated  ad- 
venture. She  had  already  become  somewhat 
famous  by  a  brilliant  enterprise  in  the  Chinese 
waters,  where,  in  company  with  the  Styx,  she 
utterly  annihilated  a  formidable  fleet  of  pirati- 
cal junks,  to  the  lively  satisfaction  of  the  for- 
eign merchants  of  Canton  and  Hong- Kong,  who 
accordingly  complimented  the  two  commanders 
with  an  honorable  memorial  of  plate.  As,  with 
her  long  black  hull,  sharp  rake,  small  paddle- 
boxes,  short  polished  funnel,  flush  deck,  low 
rail,  round  stern,  clean  gratings  and  bright  guns, 
she  lay  in  the  midst  of  a  fleet  of  tanka  boats, 
touched  by  the  rising  sun,  she  looked  remark- 
ably natty. 

After  an  early  breakfast,  steam  up,  and  then 
away  across  the  China  sea  to  Singapore.  Under 
the  awnings,  in  all  the  luxury  of  sleepy  skies 
and  lazy  Eastern  airs,  we  sped  past  the  ugly 
"  Asses'  Ears,"  and  the  Ladrones,  infamous  for 
cut-throats,  and  the  barren  Anambas  (what  do 
they  in  that  garden  ?)  and  the  beautiful  Bin- 


16  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON  ; 

tang,  and  at  the  end  of  a  week  let  go  our 
"  mud  hook"  off  the  tumble-down  jetty  of  Sin- 
gapore. 

Notes  of  travelers,  and  journals  of  officers 
without  number,  have  topographized  this  place 
for  those  who  must  know  its  height  above  the 
sea,  its  thermometrical  peculiarities,  its  soil 
and  productions,  its  manufactures  and  its 
foreign'  trade,  the  extent  of  the  English  suburb, 
and  the  population  of  the  native  town,  with  its 
ethnological  characteristics.  As  for  me,  I  have 
no  time  to  be  instructive ;  in  a  day  or  two  we 
must  be  getting  away  to  Penang  and  onward 
to  Burmah. 

There  is  another  class  of  readers — expressly 
for  such  careless  waifs  as  I — who  would  rather 
learn  that  a  Chinese  Crispin,  in  Singapore,  made 
me  a  pair  of  patent  leather  shoes  outright  in  six 
hours  by  himself,  and  that  they  fitted  me  and 
wore  well — and  that  Crispin,  that  same  night, 
was  kidnapped  by  a  tigress  as  he  was  returning 
from  a  visit  to  his  sweetheart,  somewhere  be- 
yond the  great  grave-yard,  and  introduced  to  a 
circle  of  pups,  not  as  a  guest  but  as  a  feast. 

Just  before  our  arrival  at  Singapore,  an  event 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  17 

of  horror  had  occurred  which,  better  than  the 
most  elaborate  descriptions,  serves  to  show  the 
Malay  temper,  and  the  need  of  experience  and 
tact  in  those  Europeans  (especially  ship-mas- 
ters) who  employ  and  venture  to  manage  that 
sensitive,  resentful  race. 

A  British  barque  sailed,  in  the  middle  of 
October,  from  Hong-Kong  for  Calcutta,  with 
a  crew  of  Malays.  She  was  commanded  by 
an  Englishman,  with  English  warrant  officers. 
The  Malays,  as  is  their  custom,  were  under  the 
control  of  a  tindal — a  sort  of  boatswain,  elected 
from  among  their  own  number — next  in  autho- 
rity to  whom  was  a  "  second  tindal"  or  boat- 
swain's mate.  These  tindals  exercised  absolute 
discretion  in  respect  of  the  corporal  punish- 
ments to  be  inflicted  on  their  countrymen. 
Blows  to  a  free  Malay  can  be  struck  only  by  a 
Malay ;  the  nature  of  the  offense  must  be 
stated  to  the  tindal,  who  measures  it  by  a 
standard  subscribed  to  by,  his  men,  and  dis- 
penses the  corresponding  blows,  or  gagging,  or 
confinement  in  the  coal  bunkers,  or  double 
duty,  as  the  case  may  be.  Sometimes  the  ob- 
durate are  treated  with  mysterious  indignities, 


18  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

the   wholesomeness   and   force   of  which    are 
appreciated  only  by  themselves. 

Such  is  the  universal  organization  of  Malay 
crews  in  the  Indian  seas ;  and  all  Europeans 
must  respect  it,  from  Jemmy  Ducks,  the  boy  of 
many  snubs,  through  boatswains  and  mates,  up 
to  the  despot  who  takes  the  sun  and  says 
where  she  is  to-day.  The  skipper  who  would 
venture  to  trice  up  a  Malay  and  flog  him  with 
the  cats,  must  be  drunk  or  mad.  Nor  in  con- 
fiding to  the  tindal  the  police  administration  of 
his  own  department  does  the  "old  man"  incur 
the  slightest  risk  of  lax  discipline.  Left  to 
themselves,  the  Malays  rarely  need  punishment, 
but  when  they  do,  it  is  laid  on  with  the  heavi- 
est hand,  and  with  but  little  heed  to  the  "regu- 
lations." Tindals  stand  not  on  the  manner 
of  the  pounding  but  pound  at  once  ;  and  from 
a  purely  disciplinarian  stand-point  it  is  beau- 
tiful to  see  how  patiently,  and  with  what 
trained  respect  according  to  the  bond,  the 
most  tiger-like  of  these  fierce  fatalists  submits 
to  the  bloody  chastisement  of  his  elected  officer, 
often  a  slender  youth,  a  mere  stripling,  to  be 
strangled  with  a  finger  and  thumb — for  the  tin- 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  19 

dal  is  chosen  for  his  activity,  intelligence,  and 
seamanship,  rather  than  his  strength. 

The  Captain's  wife  made  her  home  in  the 
brig,  and,  of  course,  "  worked  the  ship."  A 
hen-pecking,  sharp-tempered  she-sailor,  with 
an  unaccountable  aversion  for  Malays — who 
have  a  sort  of  indulgent  contempt  for  women, 
and  usually  content  themselves  with  letting 
them  alone  —  she  cowed  the  skipper  and 
"horsed"  the  crew,  letting  slip  no  opportu- 
nity to  have  them  punished  for  trivial  or 
imagined  misdemeanors,  and  in  this  making 
her  husband  the  instrument  of  her  spite. 

She  found  an  ally  in  the  mate,  a  dissolute 
fellow  of  ungovernable  passions,  often  drunk 
and  always  reckless,  who  noisily  braved  the 
revengeful  devil  in  the  Malay  blood,  and 
boasted  that  "  it  just  took  him  to  bring  the 
slippery  niggers  down  to  their  work." 

There  were  six  Europeans  in  the  crew — an 
English  carpenter,  the  cook,  and  a  small  boy, 
his  assistant,  and  three  ordinary  seamen. 
There  was  also  a  lady-passenger,  with  an  infant. 

One  morning,  a  few  days  out  from  Hong- 
Kong,  when  the  hatches  were  off  to  ventilate 


20  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

the  hold,  and  the  men,  having  just  had  supper, 
were  smoking  and  chatting  in  squads  about 
the  deck,  the  second  tindal  seated  himself 
thoughtlessly  on  the  coamings  of  the  main 
hatch  with  a  pipe  in  his  mouth.  The  act  was 
one  of  unpardonable  carelessness,  affording  a 
dangerous  example  to  the  rest,  for  which  he 
richly  deserved  punishment  at  the  hands  of  his 
proper  officer,  and  after  the  manner  of  Malays  ; 
but  not  as  it  was  administered  by  the  mate, 
who,  coming  up  stealthily  behind  the  man — 
all  unconscious  of  the  danger,  and,  no  doubt, 
equally  unconscious  of  his*  crime — struck  him 
a  savage  blow  on  the  back  of  the  head  with  a 
belaying-pin,  knocking  him  headlong  into  the 
hold.  The  Malay  was  cruelly  hurt,  and  being 
lifted  out  by  his  companions,  was  carried  for- 
ward insensible. 

The  affair  produced,  at  the  time,  no  visible 
excitement  among  the  Malays :  they  went 
about  their  work  as  usual,  betraying  no  more 
than  a  natural  anxiety  for  the  life  of  their 
officer,  relieving  each  other  in  attendance  upon 
him,  and  employing  all  their  rude  arts  to  heal 
his  wounds. 


OR,    UP  AND   DOWN   THE   IERAWADDI.  21 

The  vessel  lay  for  some  days  becalmed,  and 
in  that  time  the  injured  man  was  sufficiently 
recovered  to  come  on  deck,  in  the  evening  and 
sit  forward  with  his  friends.  It  was  afterward 
recollected  and  emphasized  by  the  carpenter 
and  the  cook's  boy,  that  from  the  hour  in 
which  the  second  tindal  reappeared  on  deck, 
"  the  watch  below"  never  wholly  "  turned  in," 
but  gathered  in  knots  about  the  forecastle, 
conversing  with  animation,  and  sometimes 
even  with  undisguised  excitement,  in  a  tongue 
unknown  to  the  carpenter,  who  had  a  slight 
knowledge  of  both  the  Malay  and  Bengalee 
languages. 

At  last,  when  they  were  within  a  day's  sail 
of  Singapore,  as  the  Captain  sat  near  the  bin- 
nacle in  the  moonlight,  smoking,  with  his  feet 
on  the  stern  rail,  and  his  back,  of  course,  to  his 
crew,  the  Malays,  armed  with  knives  and  axes, 
came  aft  with  their  tindal  at  their  head — all 
together,  but  so  quietly  that  their  approach 
was  unheard  by  the  skipper,  who  was  some- 
what deaf,  and  their  dreadful  purpose  unsus- 
pected by  the  carpenter  and  the  boy,  who 
were  the  only  Europeans  on  deck.  They 


22  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

mounted  the  poop-deck  and  stood  close  behind 
the  skipper. 

With  downright,  steady  brunt,  the  tindal 
buried  the  butt  of  his  axe  in  the  old  man's  brains, 
and  while  his  astonished  eyes  still  stared,  they 
tossed  him  over,  shivering,  to  the  sharks. 

Then  the  tiger  in  the  temper  of  each  man  of 
them  sprang  forward  with  a  roar.  The  mate, 
with  the  two  women,  still  lingered  over  the 
supper-table  in  the  cabin,  when  these  wild 
beasts,  fairly  foaming,  burst  in  upon  them.  The 
man  was  brave  as  well  as  brutal,  and  snatch- 
ing a  cutlass  from  the  rack  between  the  stern 
ports,  as  the  women  fled  into  a  state-room,  he 
stood  at  bay,  his  back  against  the  door.  But 
the  tindal,  lithe  as  a  cat,  and  careless  of  the 
weapon  as  though  he  had  as  many  lives,  slip- 
ped under  the  blade  before  the  mate  had  gath- 
ered his  wits  together,  and,  with  teeth  and 
nails,  fastened  on  his  throat.  In  a  moment,  a 
dozen  others  had  grasped  his  sword-arm  and 
twisted  it  out  of  the  socket.  Then  they  drag- 
ged him,  cursing  and  biting,  on  deck  and  slung 
him  in  the  rigging  and  set  the  second  tindal, 
the  avenger,  at  him. 


OR,    UP   AND  DOWN    THE    IRKAWADDI.  23 

With  barely  strength  enough  to  handle  his 
sheath-knife,  the  Malay  clung  to  his  prey, 
gloatingly,  jealously,  restlessly,  like  a  famished 
wild-cat  over  a  reeking  morsel,  dissecting  him 
piece-meal  and  daintily,  with  many  a  horrid 
interlude  and  obscene  intercalation,  down  to 
the  heart,  while  the  other  fiends  were  playing 
out  their  parts. 

With  damnable  mirth  they  dragged  their 
foolish  enemy,  the  skipper's  shrew,  half  dead 
already,  from  her  hiding-place.  A  little  while, 
and  bruised  by  "pioneers  and  all,"  and  gro- 
tesquely mutilated,  she  was  flung  into  one  of  the 
boats  hanging  at  the  davits. 

The  lady-passenger  and  her  babe  were 
as  yet  unharmed;  with  even  a  degree  of 
care  they  were  placed  in  the  boat  along  with 
the  still  gasping  remains  of  the  skipper's 
wife.  It  was  believed  by  the  carpenter,  and 
afterward  so  declared  by  several  of  the  Malays, 
that  they  did  not  mean  to  kill  or  hurt  the 
lady,  but  only  to  set  her  adrift  in  the  boat  with 
her  dying  sister,  to  be  picked  up  by  some  junk 
or  European  craft,  in  the  track  from  Singapore 
to  Hong-Kong.  But  even  as  they  were  in  the 


24  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON  ; 

act  of  "  lowering  away,"  the  second  tindal, 
drunk  with  blood,  left  his  carcass,  and  rushing 
in  among  them  with  his  knife,  cut  away  the 
after  fall,  and  so,  the  stern  dropping  with  a 
jerk,  threw  the  three  wretches  into  the  sea, 
and  mother  and  babe,  with  that  horrid  thing, 
went  down  among  the  sharks. 

They  had  dispatched,  in  the  beginning,  the 
four  European  seamen.  The  boy  had  hidden 
himself  and  was  forgotten.  The  carpenter  had 
been  ever  a  favorite  with  them,  so  they  merely 
bound  him  down  to  the  deck  between  some 
ring-bolts,  leaving  him  to  be  picked  up  by  any 
passing  craft.  Then  inverting  the  ensign  to 
attract  attention,  they  took  to  the  boats,  and 
made  straight  for  Singapore,  where  they  gave 
themselves  up,  being  the  first  to  tell  their 
own  horrid  story.  And  they  told  it  truly, 
looking  to  be  admired  for  the  fidelity  with 
which  they  had  done  their  law  upon  those 
who,  spite  of  many  a  warning,  had  set  it  at 
defiance. 

They  were  told  they  would  be  hung,  and 

P 

they  were  hung,  but  they  laughed  at  that  to 
the  last.  Your  Malay  is  your  only  sincere, 


OR,    UP    AND    DOWN    THE    IREAWADDI.  25 

practical    fatalist;    death   is   a   matter    about 
which  he  never  "  fashes"  himself. 

The  boy  came  out  from  his  concealment  when 
they  had  gone,  and  released  the  carpenter,  and 
at  dawn  the  two  hailed  a  passing  vessel,  which 
took  them  off  and  carried  them  into  Singapore, 
When  we  arrived,  the  Malays  had  been  sent  on 
to  Penang  for  trial  and  execution — all  except 
two,  who  were  shipped  with  us  to  follow  the 
others. 
2 


26  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    STRAITS   OF  MALACCA — A   TAME   MYTH. 

OVER    THE    SIDE. 

MAIDEN,  look  over  the  side  with  me, 
And  what  do  thine  eyes  discern  ? 
"  Only  some  gulf-weed  under  the  bow, 
And  a  petrel  under  the  stern. 

"  And  deep,  deep  down,  where  the  depths  are  dark. 

I  can  see  a  dolphin  shoot, 
Round  and  round  in  a  rainbow  ring, 
And  a  shark  in  fierce  pursuit. 

"  But  what  to  me  may  the  gulf-weed  be  ? 

Or  what  is  a  petrel  worth  ? 
And  what  should  the  dolphin  share,  or  the  shark, 
Of  the  pity  or  hate  of  earth  ?" 

A  busy  thought  for  an  idle  mind, 

And  a  care  for  a  heedless  heart, 
May  the  weed  or  the  silly  petrel  lend, 

Or  the  chase  of  the  fish  impart. 

Delicate  berries  the  gulf-weed  bears, 

Bountiful,  ripe,  and  red, 
That  never  peep'd  from  a  cotter's  hedge, 

Or  bloomed  by  a  shepherd's  shed. 

Nor  ever  a  place  hath  the  gulf-weed  found 

On  the  lap  of  the  matron  Earth, 
To  be  part  of  a  rosy  truant's  prize, 

Or  the  crown  of  his  Christmas  mirth. 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  27 

Never  a  home  hath  the  gulf-weed  known, 

Nor  a  clasp  of  the  friendly  land ; 
But,  rootless  and  drifting,  wearily  bears 

Its  berries  from  strand  to  strand. 

Yet,  like  a  branch  from  a  cottage  vine, 

Flung  on  the  open  sea, 
It  telleth  of  rest  to  the  weary  waves, 

And  of  home  to  thee  and  me. 

Light  as  the  petrel's  footsteps  are, 

They  slip  on  the  sliddery  sea  ; 
Quick  though  her  wings  as  a  winking  star, 

They  struggle  heavily. 

And  piteously  the  brine  drips  down, 

From  her  breast  to  the  crouching  wave, — 

Alas,  if  so  fierce  a  foe  should  fall 
On  a  thing  so  slight  and  brave  ! 

Far  from  the  rest  of  her  native  nest, 

And  the  joys  of  a  sea-bird's  home, 
She  follows  the  billow  whose  doom  is  her's, 

To  roam — and  roam — and  roam. 

Breasting  the  brunt  of  the  charging  gale, 

Her's  is  a  hero's  part, 
Strength  in  the  stroke  of  her  slender  wings, 

And  hope  in  her  panting  heart. 

So  the  petrel  under  the  stern  may  teach 

A  wholesome  homily — 
Of  courage  and  trust  for  a  fate  forlorn, 

And  of  patience  to  thee  and  me. 

Swift  as  the  glance  of  a  witch's  eye, 

In  a  glory  of  gold  and  blue, 
With  a  changing  wake  like  the  sheen  of  a  blade, 

The  dolphin  flashes  through. 


28  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

Implacable  as  Nemesis, 

The  type  of  a  Godless  mind, 
That  full-armed  heathen  of  the  seas, 

The  shark,  comes  up  behind  1 

'Tis  a  vision  of  love  in  a  bounding  heart, 

Pursued  by  a  ruthless  hate ; 
Turn  from  the  side  with  thy  silly  tears, 

And  leave  the  chase  to  fate. 

Did  you  ever  catch  a  myth  and  tame  it  ?  If 
not  (because  your  Wall-street  brother  counted 
his  fingers  and  pooh-poohed  you),  wait  till  you 
sail  through  the  Straits  of  Malacca  in  November ; 
then  bait  a  line  of  fine  fancy  with  a  thought  of 
perfect  faith,  and  take  a  mermaid. 

Mine  was  of  the  loveliest  and  most  syrene. 
She  came  not  of  the  race  of  Hans  Christian 
Andersen's  little  one — who  parted  with  her 
tuneful  blandishments  of  voice  in  order  that  a 
pair  of  "  the  neatest  white  legs  that  a  maiden 
could  desire"  might  grow  out  where  her  tail 
used  to  be  ;  for  as  we  cut  the  pale  blue  water 
in  furrows  of  silver  stars,  she  chased  the  shadow 
of  our  flying  keel  across  the  fields  of  coral,  sing- 
ing to  me  by  moonlight  the  song  her  trans- 
lucent fore-mother  sang  for  Ulysses. 

She  brought  me  pearls,  the  purest  that  mer- 


OB,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE   IRRAWADDI.  29 

urchins  pelt.  She  whistled  up  the  parrot-fishes, 
to  show  me  their  crimson-silver  plumage.  She 
flushed  me  a  flock  of  gurnards,  to  flutter  their 
Psyche  winglets.  She  strewed  the  sea-field  for 
acres  with  the  fragile  violet  Janthine;  and 
fleets  of  her  Portuguese  men-of-war,  with  hulls 
as  blue  as  her  own  eyes  and  sails  as  pink  as  her 
lips,  rode  down  over  the  long  swell,  to  give 
battle  to  saucy  Sallee-men.  She  showed  me 
how  her  sharp-shooting  chaetodons  could  bring 
down  sea-flies  with  swift,  drops  of  water. 
§>he  brought  me  branches  of  home-sickening 
sargassum — the  holly  that  told  of  sea-cattle, 
and  the  yew-sprays  from  billowy  graves. 

Under  the  boughs  of  areca,-  in  among  islands 
of  dream,  I  spied,  where  she  pointed,  the  reedy 
booms,  and  buoyant  out-riggers  of  free-booting 
proas  lurking  in  cunning  coves.  And  when  at 
last  the  breeze  of  sherbet  came  over  the  groves 
of  Penang,  she  showed  me  the  Hebes  of  air,  how 
they  sprinkled  the  draught  with  nutmeg. 


30  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 


CHAPTEE   IV. 

PENANQ RUNNING   AMOK. 

PENANG! — Paradise  and  Peridom  attainable 
by  steam  !  And  yet,  for  all  its  pools  of  silver, 
and  its  bowers  of  balm  and  beauty,  and  its 
bird-bells  tinkling  tunefully,  and  its  orchards  of 
Araboid  aromas,  and  its  drowsy  palms  nodding 
tipsily  over  brimmers  of  spiced  ether,  and  its 
bamboos  rippling  where  long  shadows  sail,  that 
Eden  also  hath  its  fiend. 

While  we  were  there,  a  Malay  ran  amok.  The 
fellow — a  familiar  vagabond  who  hung  about 
the  skirts  of  the  town — had  been  bambooed  for 
a  theft.  Next  morning,  even  as  the  golden  sun 
began  to  glorify  the  garden,  he  snatched  his 
wicked  krees,  and  with  black  locks  streaming 
in  the  astonished  air,  and  back  and  loins  bare 
and  slippery  with  palm  oil,  with  staring  eyes, 
and  visage  all-bedeviled,  crazed  with  shame  and 
spite,  and  drunk  with  opium,  he  reeled  like  a  mad 
dog,  down  the  thronged  lanes  between  the  bam- 


OB,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IKRAWADDI.  31 

boo  hedges,  where  blind  old  men,  unwitting  of 
the  horror,  crept  from  hut  to  hut,  and  maidens 
came  singing  from  the  groves  with  great  plan- 
tain clusters  on  their  heads,  and  shiny  brown 
youngsters  ran  races-  for  cocoa-nuts.  He  rushed 
through  flying  men  shouting  for  their  weapons, 
and  women  screaming  to  Guadma  and  Boodh, 
and  children  laughing  at  the  funny  man — stab- 
bing and  chopping  and  slashing,  and  spattering 
the  bamboos  with  blood ;  till  at  last,  down, 
and  wriggling  in  a  fit,  he  was  dispatched,  and  his 
steeple-chase  of  death  was  run. 

Pardon  !  I  relate  these  things  in  course.  No 
more  than  my  reader  have  I  a  taste  for  horrors ; 
but  in  those  lauds,  where  spiced  sauces  are 
everything,  they  do  not  serve  these  separate, 
and  you  must  take  them  chow-chow  with  your 
music  and  loveliness  and  love — all  or  none. 

Next  morning  we  lifted  the  anchor  and,  under 
"  full  power,"  sped  away  to  Burmah — for  coals 
and  water,  so  they  said — the  kidnappers !  to 
serve  me  so,  a  poor  Yankee  waif ! 

Passing  the  scare-crow  Andamans,  content 
to  take  their  injured  look  for  granted  and  be- 
lieve them  innocent  of  cannibals,  in  a  few  days 


32  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

we  ran  up  to  the  custom-house  wharf  of  Moul- 
mein,  so  suddenly  that  an  elephant  took  fright 
at  us,  and  ran  away  with  a  field-piece. 

Our  coming  had  been  looked  for,  for  many 
days.  Rumors  of  war,  between  the  East  India 
Company  and  the  Burmese  nation,  were  agitat- 
ing the  motley  community  of  Moulmein  and 
lending  to  the  advent  of  the  Phlcgetkon  more 
than  her  share  of  interest.  Already  a  British 
Commodore,  with  a  frigate  and  a  Company's 
steamer,  was  at  Rangoon. 

In  fact,  in  less  than  six  weeks  our  guns  were 
"  conciliating"  Burmah  ;  and  as  it  is  my  own 
story,  and  not  the  history  of  a  war  of  annexa- 
tion, that  I  have  set  out  to  write,  I  have  gather- 
ed from  this  Burmese  campaign — wherein  I  was 
a  volunteer  in  spite  of  myself — a  few  passages 
of  personal  adventure  which,  here  and  there 
in  the  progress  of  my  rambling  story,  will  turn 
up  for  the  entertainment  of  my  reader.  For 
the  rest — the  policy,  the  diplomacy,  and  "  all 
that  sort  of  thing" — I  shall  hand  him  over  to 
Cobden  and  Ellenborough,  with  one  introduc- 
tory chapter,  more  free  than  flattering : — and 
then  go  ashore. 


OR,   UP  AND    DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  33 


CHAPTER  V. 

WHAT   WE   WEEE   GOING   TO   FIGHT   ABOUT. 

IN  1826,  at  the  close  of  a  vexatious,  and,  as 
it  finally  appeared,  most  unprofitable,  war,  pro- 
voked by  the  repeated  encroachments  upon  the 
territory  of  the  East  India  Company,  of  organ- 
ized Burmese  marauders,  encouraged  by  their 
government,  the  British-Indian  Administration 
succeeded  in  concluding  a  treaty  with  that 
nation,  by  which  certain  commercial  advan- 
tages were  assured  to  the  Company's  people 
established  in,  or  statedly  voyaging  to  Burmah. 
Even  this,  however,  was  not  procured  without 
great  cost  in  money  and  men — the  latter  "  ex- 
pended" in  the  way  of  cholera,  low  fevers,  and 
sun-stroke — nor  until  the  British  force  had 
penetrated  through  stupendous  difficulties  into 
the  heart  of  the  country,  and  almost  to  the 
gates  of  her  capital. 

It  was  then  conceded  by  the  "  Golden  Foot," 
2* 


34  THE  GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

as  the  arch-savage  of  that  kingdom  is  styled, 
that  a  British  resident  should  be  received  and 
respected  at  Ava,  and  that  British  subjects 
should  be  admitted  to  the  intercourse  of  trade, 
under  certain  restrictions,  and  protected  in 
certain  commercial  enterprises  in  Burmah, 
the  nature  and  extent  of  which  were,  then  and 
there,  jealously  and  severely  prescribed. 

From  that  time  till  the  close  of  1851,  a  few 
traders  from  Calcutta,  Bombay,  Madras,  Moul- 
mein,  Singapore,  and  even  Hong-Kong  —  all 
British  subjects,  under  the  protection  of  the 
Honorable  Company,  whether  native-born, 
half-caste,  Parsees,  Armenians,  or  Chittagonians 
— attempted,  with  various  fortune,  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  safe  and  regular  commerce  with 
those  difficult  people.  A  great  variety  of  arti- 
cles of  British  or  British-Indian  manufacture, 
ndt  excepting  arms,  were  conveyed  thither  to 
be  exchanged  for  cutch,  lacquered  ware,  raw 
cotton,  petroleum,  bell-metal,  and  rubies — 
silver,  which,  from  the  commonness  of  its 
display  in  a  crude  form  among  the  bazaar  people 
of  Martaban,  Rangoon,  and  Prome,  would  seem 
to  abound,  being  confined  in  the  country  by 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN    THE   IERAWADDI.  35 

the  severest  penalties  imposed  on  its  exporta- 
tion, and  enforced  even  unto  death  j  so,  also, 
with  the  hen  fowls,  cow  elephants,  native 
mares,  women,  and  the  female  of  every  kind. 

And  thus,  on  less  than  sufferance,  but  with 
notable  patience  and  pertinacity,  the  Com- 
pany's people  continued  to  proffer  their  wares 
in  the  name  of  the  Governor-General — a  name 
which  they  hoped  would  prove  their  tower  of 
strength.  Relying  on  that  talisman,  the  ad- 
venturous woodsmen,  season  after  season,  traced 
untried  streams  to  their  sources,  and  dared  the 
almost  impenetrable  jangle,  alive  with  terrors, 
to  bring,  with  elephants  and  rafts,  their  mam- 
moth logs  of  teak  down  to  Rangoon  and  the 
ship-yards  below  Moulmein — which  latter  place, 
by-the-by,  is  a  British  military  post,  wrested 
from  Burmah,  with  the  Tenasserim  province  to 
which  it  belongs,  by  Sir  Archibald  Campbell, 
in  1824-25,  and  a  Company's  commissioner 
has  constantly  resided  there,  his  acts  supported 
by  one  British  and  two  Sepoy  regiments. 

But  these  men,  instructed  though  they  were 
in  the  ways  of  the  country,  alive  to  the  pre- 
carious tenure  of  their  footing  there,  and  to  all 


36  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

the  peculiar  perils  of  their  position,  long  used 
to  contend  with  Burmese  insolence  and  craft, 
and  not  seldom  to  defeat  and  punish  both,  were 
finally  fain  to  succumb.  The  most  arbitrary 
confiscation  of  their  goods  by  every  petty 
Woon  who  flourished  one  gold  umbrella — at 
best  no  better  than  a  promoted  dacoit  or  free- 
booter ;  the  most  wanton  destruction  of  their 
boats  and  houses ;  the  most  atrocious  cruelties 
practiced  upon  their  persons,  in  not  a  few 
instances  extending  to  their  wives  and  children  : 
these  were  difficulties  too  great  for  a  handful 
of  adventurers,  unsustained  by  the  presence  of 
a  single  ship  of  war,  to  struggle  with  success- 
fully. They  frequently  applied  to  the  govern- 
ment at  Calcutta  for  aid. 

Wherefore,  toward  the  close  of  1851,  Com- 
modore Lambert  entered  the  harbor  of  Rangoon 
with  H.  M.  frigate  Fox  and  the  Company's  war- 
steamer  Tenasserim,  as  tender,  and  dropped  an- 
chor off  the  Governor's  house.  Then  began  a 
course  of  empirical  diplomacy  unusual  in  civil- 
ized practice ;  crimination  and  recrimination  ; 
mutual  interchanges  of  threats  and  blandish- 
ments, of  curses  and  compliments,  of  contempt 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE   IRRAWADDI.  37 

and  cajolery.  To-day  the  Commodore  and  the 
Woon  dined  together  lovingly,  and  their  respec- 
tive subordinates  pleasantly  reciprocated  hospi- 
talities ;  to-morrow  all  were  in  arms,  and  with 
much  beating  of  side-drums  and  banging  of 
gongs,  defying  each  other. 

And  all  this  while  the  original  sufferers,  with 
an  exemplary  exhibition  of  the  largest  faith, 
were  waiting — waiting  for  Commodore  Lambert 
to  make  up  his  mind  whether  his  heathen  friend 
was  the  most  atrocious  cut-throat  or  just  the 
best  fellow  in  the  world — waiting  in  some  in- 
stances with  their  limbs  in  fetters,  in  all  with 
their  losses  unrepaired,  their  insults  unre- 
dressed. 

Especially  had  our  American  missionaries, 
laboring  In  the  field  of  Judson,  tasted  of  the 
cruelty  with  which  all  alike  had  been  enter- 
tained, and  the  brave  and  admirable  Kincaid 
can  this  day  bear  witness,  even  with  scars,  to 
the  success  of  the  foreign  policy  of  Burmah. 

It  is  but  just  to  Commodore  Lambert,  and 
to  Admiral  Austin,  who  superseded  him  in 
the  command  and  died  shortly  afterward, 
to  say  that  in  their  later  demands  on  the  Bur- 


38  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

mese  authorities,  so  vigorously  enforced,  they 
imperatively  included  safety  and  respect  for 
our  missionary  countrymen,  and  most  kindly 
represented  this  government  in  their  behalf. 

Meantime,  the  old  Governor  of  Dallah,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  river  over  against  Rangoon, 
who  had  all  the  time  been  professing  the  live- 
liest affection  for  Englishmen  in  general  and  the 
Commodore  in  particular,  volunteered  to  send 
a  letter  from  that  officer  to  the  King  at  Ava,  and 
promised  that  a  satisfactory  answer  should  be 
returned  after  a  reasonable  interval. 

This  amiable  old  gentleman  did  not  hesitate 
to  communicate  confidentially  to  the  Commo- 
dore his  private  impressions  touching  the  pro- 
ceedings of  his  Rangoon  brother,  and  honestly 
conceded  that  that  exalted  Woon  was  no  better 
than  he  should  be.  Moreover,  .he  assured  the 
Commodore  that  in  case  recourse  should  be  had 
to  guns,  his  feelings  would  be  with  the  English  ; 
and  although,  for  his  head's  sake,  he  should  in 
that  event  be  constrained  to  make  some  show 
of  fight,  it  would  be  all  in  friendly  sport  and 
according  to  the  "  we-understand-each-other" 
tactics,  his  shots  flying  wide  of  the  mark — a 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRKAWADDI.  39 

tenderness  which,  of  course,  his  British  friends 
would  be  expected  to  reciprocate. 

So  the  letter  was  sent ;  and,  after  a  protract- 
ed interval,  marked  by  some  ominous  expres- 
sions of  impatience  on  the  part  of  the  Commo- 
dore, an  answer  came,  brought  by  many  high- 
and-mighties  mounted  on  many  elephants : 
"  Indemnity  for  the  past,  and  security  for 
the  future,"  should  be  forthcoming  immedi- 
ately ;  His  Majesty  would  not  have  withheld 
them  a  moment — but  he  had  been  studiously 
kept  in  ignorance  of  the  facts ;  as  for  that 
reprobate  at  Rangoon,  he  should  be  forthwith 
recalled  in  disgrace  and  a  more  splendid  per- 
sonage, very  kindly  affected  toward  the  English, 
should  be  sent  from  the  capital  to  supersede  him. 

All  this  was,  of  course,  highly  flattering ;  and 
the  Commodore  gallantly  expressed  his  satis- 
faction by  withdrawing  to  Moulmein,  after  duly 
saluting  the  "  Sacred  Goose." 

Not  before  several  months  had  elapsed,  did 
the  truth  transpire — that  the  old  governor  of 
Rangoon  had  been  recalled  to  Ava,  but  only  to 
be  decorated  with  more  umbrellas,  and  promoted 
to  a  higher  seat  in  the  kingdom ;  and  as  for  the 


40  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

new  one,  compared  with  him,  his  predecessor 
was  a  blessing.  More  British  subjects  had  been 
put  in  the  stocks  and  fined,  more  ships  and 
houses  confiscated  on  pretense  of  containing 
hidden  silver ;  Eangoon  and  Dallah  had  been 
strongly  fortified  with  extensive  stockades ; 
abundance  of  ammunition  and  stores  had  been 
collected,  and  a  large  army  mustered. 

Then  the  British  commander  first  learned 
with  whom  he  had  to  deal. 

His  story  was  laid  before  the  Governor- 
General  ;  thirteen  first-class  war  steamers  and 
seventeen  transports,  conveying  nine  thousand 
men,  were  sent  to  Rangoon ;  and,  shortly  after- 
ward, Martaban,  Rangoon,  Kemmendine,  Bas- 
sein,  Yangeenchinyah,  Doonoobyoo,  Pontalong, 
and  Prome  were  taken,  and  the  beautiful  and 
productive  plains  of  Pegu — preparatory  to  their 
annexation  by  the  British-Indian  government — 
secured  to  their  oppressed  and  inoffensive  dwell- 
ers. Early  in  the  bombardment  of  Rangoon, 
the  vigor,  earnestness,  and  precision  of  the 
Dallah  guns,  convinced  the  Commodore  that  he 
had  been  mistaken  in  his  respectable  and  vener- 
able friend. 


.OB,   UP  AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  41 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE  GHAUT  AT   MOULMEIN — PALKEE-GARREES — STEAM  VS.  ELE- 
PHANT. 

As  we  approached  Moulmein,  the  pleased 
expression  on  the  faces  of  the  officers,  the  ur- 
banity of  the  "  skipper,"  and  the  alacrity  with 
which  the  men  went  about  their  work,  all  told 
plainly  enough  that  our  lines  were  about  to 
fall  in  pleasant  places.  "  Grog  and  girls" 
was  legible  enough  on  Jack's  weather-beaten 
phiz,  and  mess-dinners,  pic-nics,  and  elephant 
excursions,  could  be  read  under  every  gold 
band. 

Under  the  barn-like  shed  of  the  wharf,  and 
on  both  sides  of  the  way  approaching  it,  were 
palkee-garrees,  propelled  by  tough,  brown,  bob- 
maned  ponies,  with  a  will  of  their  own; 
rude  ugly  carts,  on  thick  wooden  wheels  of  a 
somewhat  square  pattern,  drawn  by  docile 
oxen,  all  of  them  white,  and  very  willing  little 
fellows ;  in  the  distance  an  elephant  or  two, 


42  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

flapping  their  great  ears  like  topsails  in  a 
calm,  and  switching  their  monstrous  india-rub- 
ber sides  with  branches  of  some  way-side  shrub, 
to  keep  the  flies  off.  Threading  the  parti- 
colored crowd  with  an  oscillating  motion,  its 
bearers,  with  outside  elbows  sharply  crooked 
and  calves  all  varicose,  yelping  as  they  trotted, 
was,  here  and  there,  a  long  black  palkee — the 
palankeen  of  Bengal,  with  its  red  curtains 
and  its  bobbing  pole. 

Along  the  wide  yellow  road  that  stretches 
over  the  hill,  and  sweeps  around  the  back  of  the 
town  to  the  cantonments,  was  gathered  a  pic- 
turesque throng,  impelled  by  a  curiosity  as 
various  as  their  races  and  temperaments :  high- 
ly genteel  and  uncomfortable  Englishmen — 
civil  servants  of  the  Company ;  premature  en- 
signs from  the  cantonments,  with  marvelously 
thin  legs  and  a  used-up  yawn,  very  tight  as  to 
the  seat  of  their  trowsers,  and  loose  as  to  their 
gills  and  their  language;  Her  Majesty's  Com- 
missioner, perhaps,  attended  by  some  general 
officers — all  with  clean  shirts  and  immense  airs ; 
two  or  three  American  missionaries — very  busy, 
very  awkward,  very  modest,  very  sensible — the 


OK,    UP    AND   DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  43 

only  people  there  who  seem  really  to  know 
why  they  are  there,  and  what  is  going  on  ;  a 
few  fair  daughters  of  the  regiment,  perched  in 
pony  phaetons,  or  swinging  in  palkees ;  fat, 
placid  Parsees,  with  tall,  black,  stove-pipe  hats, 
long  black  mantles,  abundant  black  beards,  pro- 
found black  eyes,  and  an  imperturbable  demean- 
or;  servile  six-penny  chee-chees  (half-castes),  at 
once  deprecatory  and  dogmatical,  extravagant 
in  their  protestations  of  respect  and  proffers  of 
service,  and  disgracefully  cheap  in  their  gar- 
ments and  their  souls — fellows  who  speak  prig- 
gish English,  of  a  parody  sort,  and  whom 
nobody  kicks,  only  because,  with  their  close 
version  of  the  proprieties,  there's  no  room  to 
get  a  kick  in — or,  if  there  were,  deducting  from 
the  sum  of  satisfaction  the  specified  pecuniary 
damages,  it  wouldn't  pay ;  Armenians,  a  sort 
of  oriental  Stigginses,  especially  interesting  for 
their  possession  of  certain  lovely  "  wessels"  at 
home,  and  the  absence  of  anything  attractive 
in  themselves,  by  which  to  account  for  it ; 
Jews,  the  same  in  Cossitollah  as  in  Chatham 
street — only  that,  in  the  former  latitude,  their 
manners  have  somewhat  more  of  the  Shekinah 


44  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

and  less  of  "  der  masheen";  Chinese,  cunning, 
cosmopolite,  comfortable ;  Malays,  clannish, 
jealous,  exacting  consideration ;  Bengalees, 
vociferous  and  importunate,  acquainted  with 
blows  and  rather  liking  them,  born  slaves  and 
scamps  and  dodging  nuisances  ;  Burmese,  by- 
standing,  unprotesting,  bothered  altogether. 

All  Moulmein  was  on  the  qui  vive.  Presently, 
came  baskets  of  plantains  and  melons,  with  now 
and  then  the  first  dorians  or  mangoes  of  the 
season,  for  a  lucky  dog  of  a  messmate,  from 
some  adjutant's  sister  or  commissary's  cousin. 
Next,  all  the  intricacies  of  a  long-shore  toilet 
were  to  be  woven  from  a  sailor's  simple  kit,  amid 
much  anathematizing  of  Hindoo  barbers  and 
"  boys,"  who  deserved  nothing  better,  for  that 
day  at  least,  than  epithets  ingeniously  contrived 
to  insult  their  religious  prejudices.  Then  fre- 
quent and  modest  petitions  at  the  captain's 
door — "Permission  to  go  ashore,  sir?" — that 
gentleman,  himself  most  eager  for  the  fun,  pre- 
serving an  attitude  of  dignified  indifference 
to  such  puerile  excitements.  Last  of  all  came 
the  hurry  and  confusion,  and  noisy  contention 
in  a  babel  of  dialects,  of  "  shore-boats  along- 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  45 

side,  sir,"  reported  by  the  quarter-master,  and 
followed  by  a  variety  of  novel  experiments  — 
often  attended  by  most  ludicrous  mishaps,  to  the 
great  glee  of  the  dinghee-wallahs — to  balance 
ourselves  in  their  tipsy  canoes  : — The  cautious 
men,  especially  "  old  stagers,"  tenderly  pre- 
served the  boat's  and  their  own  centre  of  gravi- 
ty by  humbly  squatting  in  the  bottom  ;  the 
rash,  especially  the  greenhorns,  insisted  upon 
standing  erect  and  "  striking  an  attitude,"  until 
a  ducking,  fatal  to  all  their  pretty  arangements, 
explained  the  futility  of  the  effort. 

And  so  we  reach  the  ghaut — or  rather  the 
mud,  when  the  tide  is  low — through  which  we 
are  borne,  baby-like,  in  the  arms  of  the  bearers. 
The  dinghee-wallahs  being  paid — not  without 
much  exhortation  to  our  generosity  on  their 
part,  and  some  striking  arguments,  addressed 
to  their  extortion,  on  ours — we  switch  our 
way  through  the  motley  crew,  diverse  as  Jo- 
seph's coat,  to  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  patient 
friends  and  receive  their  congratulatory  greet- 
ings. 

Conveyances  must  be  provided  for  our  ex- 
cursion. The  "  fast  man,"  with  an  eye  to  speed 


46  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON  ; 

and  all  a  sailor's  fondness  for  a  drive,  selects  a 
garree ;  the  "  old  Indian,"  habituated  to  luxury 
and  laziness,  prefers  a  palkee.  This  last  is  an 
oblong  box,  three  feet  high,  three  feet  wide, 
and  six  feet  long,  paneled  and  varnished  like 
the  body  of  a  carriage,  provided  with  sliding 
doors  and  curtains  on  both  sides,  and  a  small 
window  in  each  end,  and,  by  means  of  a  stout 
pole  at  either  extremity,  parallel  to  its  longi- 
tudinal axis,  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  four 
stout  bearers.  Within,  it  is  furnished  with  a 
light  mattress  of  some  fine  sort  of  straw,  and  a 
pillow  of  cane  or  paper,  beside  a  small  shelf 
and  drawer  to  hold  books  and  parcels.  In  this 
the  passenger  indolently  extends  his  full  length, 
and,  in  agreeable  privacy,  smokes,  or  reads,  or 
sleeps,  as  he  travels. 

The  palkce-wallahs,  as  the  bearers  are  called, 
are  naked  to  the  waist,  save  in  the  rainy  season. 
Their  loins  are  girt  up  in  an  ample  breech-cloth 
of  white  linen,  and  a  turban  of  the  same  mate- 
rial protects  the  head,  having  one  end  long  and 
pendent,  which,  taking  a  turn  around  the 
neck,  falls  over  the  free  shoulder ;  their  legs  and 
feet  are  uncovered. 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN   THE    IRRAWADDI.  47 

These  palkees,  which,  to  an  inexperienced 
person,  offer,  even  when  empty,  a  hopeless 
weight,  are  conveyed  by  them,  with  a  heavy 
passenger  within,  at  the  rate  of  twenty  or  thirty 
miles  a  day,  with  but  slight  distress.  Their 
mode  of  travel  is  a  short  trot,  having  the 
free  elbow  sharply  crooked,  and  marking  time 
with  a  strange  monotonous  refrain.  To  a 
stranger,  this  is  at  first  an  unpleasant  mode  of 
excursion,  owing  to  the  almost  painful  sympa- 
thy it  excites  in  behalf  of  the  struggling  bear- 
ers ;  but  that  weakness  is  soon  lost  in  the  pro- 
cess of  acclimation. 

In  Calcutta,  the  palkee  is  a  popular  vehicle 
of  flirtation,  for  which  purpose  it  is  suc- 
cessfully employed.  In  the  most  crowded 
thoroughfares  it  is  not  uncommon  to  meet 
what  appears  to  be  a  double  palkee,  with 
eight  bearers,  and  the  doors  closed.  The  ar- 
rangement is  simple,  but  ingenious,  and  de- 
lightfully convenient.  Two  single  palkees  are 
brought  side  by  side — one,  of  course,  contains  a 
lady,  the  other,  a  gentleman  ;  the  outer  doors 
are  closed,  the  inner  open  ;  the  vehicles  are  in 
the  closest  juxtaposition  ;  the  same  monotonous 


48  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

ditty  (which,  for  once,  may  be  an  extemporane- 
ous love-song)  serves  for  the  sixteen  feet.  Hin- 
doos are  never  intrusive  or  inquisitive  when  they 
can  afford  to  abstain ;  and  so  two  innocent  peo- 
ple recline  within  an  inch  and  a  half  of  each 
other,  and,  threading  crowded  bazaars,  pour 
soft  nothings  into  each  other's  ears  in  all  the 
sacred  seclusion  of  a  harem.  It  is  pleasant  to 
travel  thus. 

The  garree  is  a  small,  close  carriage,  resem- 
bling those  in  use  by  physicians  in  this  country. 
It  is  mounted  on  low  wheels,  and  seats  four 
persons  not  uncomfortably.  Many  of  them 
are  neat,  and  no  hackney  vehicles  can  be  more 
convenient.  They  are  drawn  by  small  Burmese 
ponies — tough,  sure-footed,  quick  beasts,  with 
endless  "  bottom."  The  driver,  who  is  attired 
in  the  costume  of  the  palkee-wallahs  is  never 
seated,  but  runs  beside  his  horse,  whatever  the 
distance.  There  is  nothing  especially  notice- 
able about  him,  except  his  varicose  veins,  of 
which  he  is  proud,  and  his  long  wind,  of  which 
he  is  prouder. 

On  the  present  occasion,  one  of  these  latter 
gentry  seized  me  and  my  companion  and  thrust 


OR,    UP   AND  DOWN   THE   IRKAWADDI.  49 

us  bodily  into  his  box.  As  we  rode  past  the 
timber-yards  we  stopped  to  regard  an  elephant 
who  was  hauling  huge  logs  of  teak,  cut  for 
spars  and  ribs,  from  one  end  of  the  yard  to  the 
other,  where  he  piled  them.  The  ends  of  a  stout 
chain  cable,  girdled  about  his  burly  body,  were 
made  fast  to  the  end  of  a  log,  and  at  the  word 
from  his  driver,  who,  perched  upon  his  neck, 
was  digging  into  his  skull  with  an  iron-shod 
stick  shaped  like  a  boat-hook,  he  dragged 
it  leisurely  to  the  spot  indicated.  There  the 
chain  was  unhooked,  and  once  more,  by  com- 
mand of  the  brute  on  his  head,  he  raised  the 
huge  beam  cautiously,  one  end  at  a  time,  and 
deposited  it  in  its  place,  the  lazy  coolies  mean- 
while sitting  down  to  rest.  Wise  and  gentle 
and  forbearing  beast ! 

"  How  kind  it  was  of  him, 

To  mind  such  slender  men  as  they — 
He  of  the  mighty  limb  1" 

His  must  have  been  the  soul,  and  he  more 
worthy  of  the  saving  offices  of  a  missionary 
than  his  stolid  masters. 

While  he  thus  pursued  his  ponderous  toil, 

the   Phlegethon,   near  by,   let   off  steam,   and 
3 


50  THE   GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

the  shrill,  foreign  scream  reached  his  gutta'- 
percha  ears.  He  paused  in  his  task,  and 
listened  for  a  moment,  all  amazed.  Then, 
raising  his  trunk  aloft,  he  uttered  an  ex- 
clamation of  astonishment,  like  the  Indian 
"ugh!"  Anon  he  turned  his  brisk  little  eyes 
about,  seeming  to  seek  some  Daniel  who  could 
interpret  the  warning  to  his  dismayed  soul ;  for 
it  was  a  warning,  of  heavy  import  to  him  and 
all  his  free  fellows  in  the  jungle,  and  I  could 
have  prayed  for  the  gift  of  tongues,  that  I 
might  speak  elephant  to  him,  and  tell  him,  in 
accents  forlorner  than  Cassandra's,  all  the  dark 
prophecy  of  steam  and  telegraphs,  of  desolation 
in  his  rice  fields,  and  menial  offices  imposed 
upon  his  calves. 

Presently  he  resumed  his  task,  no  longer 
with  his  wonted  deliberateness  and  self-posses- 
sion, but  with  a  strange  agitation  in  his  soul, 
and  wild  eyes,  big  with  speculation. 


OB,   UP   AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDL  51 


CHAPTER    VII. 

MOULMEIN — TOWN   AND    CANTONMENTS. 

MOULMEIN  is  a  picturesque  place ;  but  so  are 
all  Burmese  villages,  and  in  their  prominent 
features  they  are  all  alike.  Select  an  easy, 
rolling  slope,  with  knolls  and  tangled  thickets, 
gently  declining  from  a  range  of  heavily-tim- 
bered hills.  Flank  it  on  either  side  with 
interminable  jungle,  affording  secure  cover  for 
the  various  forest  life.  In  front  of  all,  train  a 
wide,  rapid,  darkly-discolored  stream,  abun- 
dantly stocked  with  alligators,  water-oxen,  and 
other  such  fishy  game ;  and  fill  up  your  back- 
ground with  teak-forests  and  remote  moun- 
tains, with  here  and  there  some  paddy-fields 
between,  which  shall  pasture  your  wild 
elephants.  Cover  your  ground  with  creep- 
ers, cactuses,  canes,  and  various  tropical 
vegetation  in  a  wilderness  of  profusion.  In 
among  these,  plant  your  native  bamboo  huts 
as  thickly  as  you  can,  and  with  picturesque 


52  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

freedom  of  arrangement ;  for  you  will  remem- 
ber that  you  are  in  Burmah,  not  in  America  or 
England,  consequently  you  will  fit  your  house 
to  your  trees,  not  your  park  to  your  mansion, 
save  that,  with  an  eye  to  future  tiffins,  you 
will  contrive  to  secure  the  convenient  proximi- 
ty of  some  indispensable  plantains  and  man- 
goes. 

You  will  require  three  streets :  one,  which 
shall  be  the  street  of  shops,  running  through 
the  heart  of  the  town  in  the  direction  of  its 
length.  In  the  busiest  part  of  this  thorough- 
fare you  will  require  some  more  substantial 
structures,  built  of  a  sort  of  half-burnt  brick, 
and  occupied  by  Jew  and  Armenian  shop- 
keepers, who  traffic  in  everything  and  stick  at 
nothing. 

Dark  and  secret  are  the  domestic  quarters 
of  these  dens,  suggesting  Turkish  shadows  of 
eunuchs  and  sacks  and  bow-strings ;  though 
once  in  a  while  the  low  giggle  of  some  hidden 
Hagar  of  seventeen  drops  into  the  stranger's 
ear  from  between  the  jealous  bars  of  her  lat- 
tice, or  he  catches  a  glimpse  of  the  heavenly 
profile  of  some  half-caste  Armenian  maiden, 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  58 

(such  an  one  was  Mindalceen!)  as  she  lights 
her  father's  hubble-bubble  in  the  back-shop. 

Your  second  street  in  importance  will  be 
the  street  of  ghauts,  extending  from  the  canton- 
ments to  the  custom-house  wharf;  and  your 
last  will  penetrate  the  cantonments  themselves. 

In  a  new  American  settlement,  the  public 
building  first  erected  is  always  the  land-office. 
In  Burmah  (at  an  English  military  post)  it  is 
first  an  American  Baptist  school-house,  which, 
American-like,  looks  to  a  succession  of  im- 
provements, and  consequently  is  flimsily  con- 
structed of  bamboos,  differing  from  the  native 
houses  only  in  its  dimensions.  The  second 
is  the  Company's  custom-house,  which,  British- 
like,  is  a  fixed,  irrevocable  fact,  not  to  be 
reconsidered  ;  consequently  it  is  -a  substantial 
structure  of  bricks  and  stucco  from  the  begin- 
ning. 

For  public  buildings,  and  places  of  popular 
resort,  you  have  the  cantonments  and  barracks, 
where,  if  your  tastes  are  military,  you  can  in- 
spect some  thousands  of  red-coated  sepoys, 
and  every  morning  at  the  sunrise-gun  see  from 
three  to  five  regiments  severely  drilled.  If 


54  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

your  tendencies  are  religious,  you  have  the 
English  church,  and  the  Catholic  chapel,  and 
the  Baptist  meeting-house.  If  your  tastes  are 
mechanical,  you  have  the  timber-yards  and  the 
docks,  and  perhaps  a  ship-yard.  If  they  are 
zoological,  there  are  stuffed  tigers  in  the  bar- 
racks, and  the  elephant  who  is  toting  grass  for 
the  artillery  stables  will  pick  up  a  cigar,  or 
make  salaam  for  you,  for  a  plantain  or  two. 
Besides,  there  is  a  live  alligator  in  the  school 
tank,  and  the  superintending  surgeon  stuffs 
birds  and  impales  butterflies.  You  may  visit 
the  old  poonghee  houses  arid  see  the  idols;  or 
attend  parade  on  Wednesday  and  Friday  after- 
noons to  hear  opera  airs  from  the  "  18th  Royal 
Irish,"  or  some  other  regimental  band,  and  idol- 
ize the  girls. 

For  your  morning  calls,  you  have  the 
wives,  and  sisters,  and  daughters,  and  cousins 
of  the  British-Indian  army,  with  an  occa- 
sional she- ad  venturer  who  is  on  tolerance 
in  society,  and  the  most  agreeable  person 
in  it,  so  long  as  you  pay  her  sufficient  at- 
tention and  do  not  inquire  who  her  father 
was,  which  would  imply  that  she  is  a  wiser 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  55 

child  than  you  will  find  her.  For  amusements 
you  have  public  mess-days,  dinners  at  the  Com- 
missioner's, an  occasional  ball  or  so,  some  pri- 
vate theatricals,  tableaux  vivans,  charades,  &c., 
plenty  of  soirees,  and  "  tea  at  the  Mission." 
Then  there  are  elephant  excursions  to  "  the 
Caves,"  (which  are  not  wholly  incidentless, 
and  shall  be  minutely  described  soon,)  and  an 
abundance  of  pic-nics,  which  are  like  other 
pic-nics  all  the  world  over,  save  that  you  ride 
to  them  on  elephants  and  take  guns  to  keep 
off  the  tigers. 

Now,  to  complete  your  Burmese  village  :  on 
every  hill-top,  on  every  lofty  peak  that  over- 
looks the  town,  let  a  small  white  pagoda  be 
seen,  perched  like  some  beautiful  but  lonely 
bird.  Crown  each  of  these  delicate  aerial  edi- 
fices with  a  coronet  of  tiny  gilded  bells,  which 
shall  utter  the  mellowest  music  to  every  pass- 
ing breeze  and  salute  with  silver  tinklings  the 
fragrant  incense  which  ascends  to  visit  them 
from  many  a  lotos-laden  lake  and  plantain- 
grove. 

And  so  you  have  Moulmein,  where  one  be- 
holds in  the  fullness  of  its  grace  and  beauty 


56  THE   GOLDEN  DAQON  ; 

that  most  superb  of  Chin-India's  flowering 
trees,  named  for  a  vice-royal  dame  worthy  to 
be  its  patron,  the  Noble  Amhcrstia.  On  every 
hand  its  crown  of  lively  green  is  seen,  and  its 
rustling  skirts  hang  low,  fringed  and  corded 
and  tasseled  in  green  and  gold  and  crimson. 


OK,   UP   AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  57 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

ELEPHANT-BACK "  OLD    INJIN-EUBBEB" THE    BOA THE 

CAVES GUADMA — THE   BATS. 

SHORTLY  after  our  arrival  at  Moulmein,  an  ex- 
cursion to  "  The  Caves,"  some  twelve  miles  to 
the  north  of  the  town,  was  planned  by  several 
English  officers  and  resident  merchants,  and  an 
invitation  extended  to  our  gun-room  mess.  Ac- 
cordingly, garrees  were  bespoken,  boats  engaged 
to  await  us  at  the  ferry,  and  elephants  on  the 
other  side,  to  roll  us  to  our  destination ;  kit- 
mudgars  and  bearers  were  sent  on  before  with 
hampers,  teeming  with  tongues,  anchovies, 
sardines,  chutney,  eggs,  and  curry,  together 
with  the  table  furniture,  and  all  the  machinery 
of  a  pic-nic.  And  so,  with  the  cheroots,  and  the 
"  brandy-pawnee,"  and  the  soda-water,  and  the 
beer,  we  set  out,  after  an  early  breakfast  of 
fruit  and  coffee,  in  our  low,  square  garrees,  drawn 
by  the  same  brown,  bob-maned,  opinionated 

ponies,   each   with   his  proper  gora-wallah — 
3* 


58  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

I 

nude  and  sweaty,  and  shiny  accordingly,  and 
long-winded  and  varicose  —  running  at  his 
head. 

After  an  hour  of  rattling  through  straight 
and  narrow  streets,  between  green  ditches  and 
smoky  bamboo  huts — the  latter  extremely  ram- 
shackle, and  redolent  of  petroleum,  ghee,  and 
putrid  fish  —  running  over  pariah  dogs,  and 
throwing  naked  brown  brats  into  convulsions 
of  glee,  while  their  fathers  and  mothers  squat- 
ted, and  giggled,  and  smoked  great  green  cigars, 
in  their  cane  porches — we  came,  at  last,  to  the 
river.  Here,  alighting  from  the  garrees,  we 
transferred  ourselves  and  the  "  plunder"  to 
ticklish  canoes,  and  were  paddled  across  the 
sluggish  stream,  thinking  of  crocodiles  and  hip- 
popotami, to  a  bunch  of  tumble-down  sheds  in 
a  bower  of  urchin  banians,  where  some  Bur- 
mese loafers,  who  were  squatting  as  we  ap-. 
proached,  in  knots  of  three  or  four,  rising  to 
the  perpendicular  when  our  boats  stuck,  a 
score  of  yards  from  the  bank,  ran  down  to  bear 
us  over  the  black  mud  on  their  backs. 

A  few  rods  up  the  road,  five  elephants,  sub- 
stantial monsters,  stood  flapping  their  cape- 


OR,    UP    AND    DOWN    THE    IRKAWADDI.  59 

like  ears,  and  pendulating  their  short,  ridiculous 
tails — which,  by-the-by,  the  greenest  of  us  re- 
garded as  very  superfluous  appendages,  as  use- 
less as  unornamental,  until,  fording  a  stream  in 
the  course  of  our  excursion,  we  perceived  the 
very  gentlemanly  use  to  which  the  gutta-percha 
philosopher  in  front  of  us  put  his.  They 
twinkled  their  bright,  little,  black  eyes,  that 
were  like  polished  horn  buttons  on  an  india- 
rubber  over-coat,  and  fly-brushed  themselves 
with  whisps  of  paddy  straw,  featly  flourished 
with  their  trunks. 

Seeing  an  elephant  in  a  menagerie,  may  na- 
turally be  attended  with  sensations  more  or 
less  flattering  to  the  spectator,  in  view  of  the 
"  admittance,  25  cents" — he  is  conscious  of 
patronizing  Behemoth.  But  to  stand  under  a 
roadside  precipice  of  animated  india-rubber, 
having  already  (being  a  green  tourist  to  that 
spot)  -foolishly  made  grand  flourishes  of  your 
intention  to  ascend  without  assistance,  is  to 
look  up  at  Peter  Botte,  and  suddenly  recollect 
that  you  have  left  your  windlass  and  rope-lad- 
der at  home ;  you  are  reduced,  with  ridiculous 
abruptness,  to  a  sense  of  your  situation — a  con- 


60  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON } 

fession  of  your  own  insignificance,  and  the 
magnitude  of  the  Almighty's  works. 

When  my  kitmudgar,  pointing  to  Behemoth's 
Jehu,  perched  on  'his  neck  with  a  boat-hook 
contrivance  for  a  whip,  said,  "  S'pose  Sahib 
likee,  Sahib  can  go  up"  that  somewhat  saturnine 
heathen  had  no  intention  to  be  funny.  Most 
of  our  party  had  been  "up"  before,  and,  with 
slight  assistance — by  pushing  from  below,  by 
Jehu's  pulling  from  above  —  were  soon  to  be 
seen  leaning  over  the  rails  of  the  howdahs,  sur- 
veying the  surrounding  country  from  their  com- 
manding eminence. 

"  Our  Yankee  friend,"  being  neither  active 
nor  light,  of  course  came  last.  The  mountain 
had  partly  come  down  to  the  other  Mahomets, 
and  Behemoth  was  kneeling.  Our  company 
was  uncomfortably  masculine,  so  there  were  no 
steps  provided  ;  the  livery-stable  keepers,  from 
whom  we  hired  our  nags,  would  not  insult  the 
Sahibs,  forsooth — "  the  Sahibs  were  birds,  the 
Sahibs  were  serpents,  the  Sahibs  were  mon- 
keys." (Thank  you  !)  "Must  birds,  must  ser- 
pents, must  monkeys  have  ladders?"  So  they 
boosted  their  Yankee  friend  from  below,  and 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  61 

they  hoisted  their  Yankee  friend  from  above  j 
but  they  were  weak  with  laughter,  and  they 
let  go,  and  the  sides  of  the  mountain  were  no 
less  slippery  than  steep,  and  the  feet  of  their 
Yankee  friend  were  false  to  him,  his  temper 
impatient,  his  wonted  philosophy  forgotten  :  so 
he  slid  down. 

Thrice  he  slid  down  discomfited,  and,  the 
third  time,  he  carried  with  him  the  bamboo 
front  of  the  howdah.  Then  Behemoth  rose  to 
his  feet,  contemptuous,  indignant,  with  "too 
bad"  in  his  eye,  impatience  in  his  uplifted 
trunk,  and  offended  dignity  in  his  short,  huffish 
grunt.  But  Jehu,  patient  and  busy,  picked 
away  at  his  organ  of  amativeness  with  the 
boat-hook ;  there  was  another  small  land-slide 
— and  then,  with  unanimity  of  extraordinary 
boosting  and  hoisting,  joined  to  a  great  feat  of 
agility  on  the  part  of  the  acrobat,  silently 
apprehensive  of  the  mood  of  Behemoth,  "our 
Yankee  friend"  reached  the  top,  amid  loud 
cheers,  and  "  Yankee  Doodle"  from  the  band. 
Whereupon,  Behemoth,  with  great  upheavings, 
arose  from  his  knees,  and  rolled  forward. 

If  you  have  never  doubled  the  Cape,  if  your 


62  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

stomach  is  treacherous  and  your  sea-legs  uncer- 
tain, if  sea-sickness  is  your  idiosyncrasy,  don't 
take  passage  on  an  elephant  for  a  voyage  of 
twenty-five  miles;  go  by  water,  or  try  a 
palkee. 

First,  you  are  down  by  the  stern — then  bows 
under ;  now  a  lurch  to  leeward  pitches  you 
into  the  scuppers,  and  next  you  are  in  the 
trough  of  the  sea,  wallowing  to  windward. 
Like  a  Dutch  galliot,  under  bare  poles  in  a 
cross-sea — how  she  rolls !  Like  a  whale  in  the 
wake  of  a  steamer — how  she  blows!  You 
ascend  a  slight  irregularity  in  the  road — how 
she  labors  up  the  slope !  You  pause  on  the 
ridge — for  an  instant  she  sways  and  surges, 

then 

"  Down  topples  to  the  gulf  below." 

You  hold  on  by  the  howdah;  you  commend 
yourself  to  your  usual  good-luck  ;  you  comfort 
your  fears  by  observing  how  little  Jehu  minds 
it ;  you  throw  away  your  cheroot — it's  too  hot 
to  smoke  ;  you  stop  wishing  for  tiffin ;  you  try 
to  think  it  interesting,  and  commence  insti- 
tuting naturalistic  researches  into  the  sagacity 
of  "  old  Injin-Rubber,"  as  that  funny  Smith, 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRKAWADDI.  63 

of  the  Company's  service,  nicknames  the  soft 
subject  of  your  studies. 

Thus  you  get  through  six  miles  of  monoto- 
nous jungle,  relieved  only  by  its  sequel  of  six 
miles  of  monotonous  paddy-field.  However 
often  you  may  wish,  inside,  that  you  were 
dead,  you  never  once  say  so— "You  rather  like 
it."  At  last,  you  come  to  your  "  Caves,"  and, 
with  a  "  By  Jove,  boys — this  is  capital !"  you 
swing  yourself  off  by  the  hands,  and  drop  to 
the  ground,  as  fearlessly  as  though  you  had 
never  told  a  lie  in  your  life. 


Shortly  after  emerging  from  the  jungle  into 
the  paddy,  our  liveliest  curiosity  was  aroused 
by  the  eccentric  movements  of  our  elephant, 
and  the  sudden  excitement  of  his  mahout,  who, 
leaning  over  the  head  of  his  beast,  explored  the 
ground  before  him,  and  on  each  side,  with 
curious,  anxious  scrutiny,  conversing  all  the 
while  with  his  huge  philosopher  and  friend, 
in  quick,  sharp  ejaculations,  sometimes  shrill, 
sometimes  subdued,  sometimes  almost  whis- 
pered in  his  ear. 


64  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON  ; 

"  Old  Injin-Rubber"  crept  forward  cautiously 
(imagine  an  elephant  on  tiptoe),  hesitating, 
suspicious,  vigilant,  defensive,  holding  his  pre- 
cious proboscis  high  in  air.  Presently  he  stops 
short,  stares  straight  before  him  with  evident 
agitation,  for  we  feel  the  mass  vibrating  beneath 
us,  as  when  a  heavily-laden  wagon  crosses  a 
suspension  bridge.  Then,  hark !  with  trumpet 
pointed  to  the  sky,  he  blows  a  sharp  and  brazen 
blast,  and  trots  forward.  At  the  same  moment, 
an  exultant  exclamation  from  the  mahout  tells 
the  story  in  a  word — "  the  boa!  the  boa  !" 

Right  in  the  path,  where  the  sun  was  hot- 
test, lay  a  serpent,  such  as  he  who  charmed 
the  first  vanity,  his  vast  length  of  splendid 
ugliness  gorged,  torpid,  motionless,  not  coiled 
nor  vermicular,  but  outstretched,  prostrate  and 
limp — subject,  abject  to  the  great  gluttony  of 
his  instinct. 

"  Old  Injin-Rubber"  pauses,  as  if  for  instruc- 
tions; he  receives  them  on  his  organ  of  philopro- 
genitiveness  from  the  boat-hook.  Half  a  dozen 
more  rolls  and  lurches,  and  he  plants  his  moun- 
tainous fore-foot  on  the  head  of  the  drunken 
horror — eyes,  brains,  blood  burst  out  together. 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  65 

Like  an  earth-worm  on  the  pin-hook  of  an  angling 
urchin,  the  monster  wriggles  and  squirms — now 
twisting  his  great  girth  in  seemingly  everlasting 
knots — now  erecting  all  his  length,  without  a 
kink,  in  air — now,  in  a  tempest  of  dust,  thrash- 
ing the  ground  with  resounding  stripes;  till,  at 
last,  beaten  out,  his  crushing  strength  all  spent, 
even  his  tail  subdued,  he  lies,  and  only  shivers. 
Then,  again  and  again,  Behemoth  tosses  him 
aloft,  again  and  again  dashes  him  to  earth  ; 
till,  torn  and  spoiled,  his  gold  and  black  all 
tarnished  with  slime,  and  blood,  and  dust,  the 
Enemy  is  brought  to  shame,  and  the  heel  of  a 
babe  might  bruise  the  head  of  the  serpent. 


A  small  prairie  of  wild  rice  gradually  and 
very  uniformly  sloped  from  a  range  of  low 
wooded  hills  to  the  stream  we  had  already 
crossed,  and  which,  after  a  great  circuit,  shone 
before  us  again ;— on  the  south,  a  fringe  of 
jungle ;  on  the  north  and  west,  the  river,  with 
here  and  there  a  knot  of  talipot  trees ;  on  the 
east,  far  off,  the  low  hills  timbered  with  young 
teak;  and,  between,  a  multitudinous  banian, 
with  its  tabooed  grove,  haunted  and  whispering. 


66  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON  ; 

In  the  midst  of  this  landscape,  and  rising 
suddenly  from  the  plain,  towered  an  imposing 
pile  of  consecrated  rock,  green  to  the  top  with 
slimy,  slippery  damps,  oozing  forever,  and  in 
their  slowness  finding  time  to  vegetate  ;  plump 
cushions  of  bright  moss,  creepers  creeping  cu- 
riously, the  glancing  leaves  and  abundant  red 
flowers  of  strange,  poisonous-looking  parasites 
— green,  green,  green,  from  base  to  peak — a 
mountain  of  soft  and  fragrant  couches  under 
curtains  of  dewy  shade,  whereon,  in  his  ever- 
lasting round,  the  Wandering  Jew  might  come 
to  rest  himself;  topmost  of  all,  a  solitary  tali- 
pot, an  hundred  feet  of  uninterrupted  trunk, 
supporting  on  high  its  giant  umbrella,  as  though 
Guadma  stood  beneath,  and  looked  abroad  over 
all  the  land ;  and  every  where  the  proud  and 
ruthless  beauty  of  the  ruin-making  peepul,  the 
missionary  tree,  displacing  foundations,  over- 
throwing pinnacles  upreared  to  Baal,  bearing 
aloft  in  her  beautiful  arms  fragments  from  the 
havoc  she  has  made,  picking  at  pyramids  with 
her  delicate,  but  expert  and  busy,  fingers — sap- 
ping the  palace  of  Alompra  and  the  temple  of 
Guadma,  in  the  name  of  Jehovah  ! 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  67 

Some  dozen  or  so  of  Burmese  ragamuffins, 
who  did  a  small  business  in  torches  for  such 
excursion  parties  to  the  Caves,  had  accompanied 
us  from  the  ferry,  bearing  baskets  of  bamboo 
fagots  armed  at  one  end  with  swabs  of  tow,  and 
dipped  in  petroleum.  Lighting  these,  and 
each  man  taking  one,  we  mounted  the  steep, 
tortuous,  and  slippery  foot-path  of  damp,  green 
stones,  through  the  thorny  shrubs  that  beset 
it,  to  the  low  entrance  of  the  outer  cavern. 
Stooping  uncomfortably,  we  passed  into  a  small, 
vacant  ante-chamber,  having  a  low,  dripping 
roof,  perpendicular  walls,  clammy  and  green, 
and  a  rocky  floor,  sloping  inward  through  a  nar- 
row arch  to  a  long,  double,  transverse  gallery, 
divided  in  the  direction  of  its  length,  partly  by 
a  face  of  rock,  partly  by  a  row  of  pillars. 

Here  were  innumerable  images  of  Guadma, 
the  counterfeit  presentment  of  the  fourth 
Boodh,  whose  successor  is  to  see  the  end  of  all 
things.  Innumerable,  and  of  every  stature,  from 
Hop-o'-my-thumb's  to  Huiiothrombo's,  but  all 
of  the  identical  orthodox  pattern,  with  pendu- 
lous ears,  one  hand  planted  squarely  on  the  knee, 
the  other  sleeping  in  the  lap,  an  eternity  of 


68  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

front-face,  and  a  smooth  stagnancy  of  expres- 
sion, typical  of  an  unfathomable  calm — the 
Guadma  of  a  span  as  grim  as  he  of  ten  cubits, 
and  he  of  ten  cubits  as  vacant  as  the  Guadma 
of  a  span :  of  stone,  of  lead,  of  wood,  of  clay, 
of  earthenware,  and  alabaster — on  their  bot- 
toms, on  their  heads,  on  their  backs,  on  their 
sides,  on  their  faces — black,  white,  red,  yellow — 
an  eye  gone,  a  nose  gone,  an  ear  gone,  a  head 
gone — an  arm  off  at  the  shoulder,  a  leg  at  the 
knee — a  back  split,  a  belly  burst — Guadma, 
imperturbable,  eternal,  calm;  in  the  midst  of 
Time,  timeless ! 

It  is  not  annihilation  which  the  Boodh  has 
promised  as  the  blessed  crown  of  a  myriad  of 
progressive  transmigrations ;  it  is  not  death — it 
is  not  sleep — it  is  this. 

Between  colossal  stalactites  at  either  end  of 
this  gallery,  we  passed  into  two  spacious  and 
lofty  chambers,  nearly  symmetrical  in  conform- 
ation and  dimensions,  separated,  like  the  twin 
galleries,  by  alternate  pillars  and  piles  of 
rock. 

Our  entrance  awoke  a  Pandemonium.  My- 
riads of  bats  and  owls,  and  all  manner  of  fowls 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN    THE   IRRAWADDI.  69 

of  darkness  and  bad  omen,  crazed  by  the  glare 
of  twenty  torches,  startled  the  echoes  with 
infernal  clangor.  Screaming  and  huddling 
together,  some  fled  under  the  wide  skirts  of 
sable,  which  Darkness,  climbing  to  the  roof  in 
fear,  drew  up  after  her ;  some  hid  with  lesser 
shadows  between  columns  of  great  girth,  or  in 
the  remotest  murky  niches,  or  down  in  the 
black  profound  of  resounding  chasms ;  some 
bewildered,  or  quite  blinded  by  the  flashes  of 
the  "  co-eternal  beam,"  dashed  themselves 
against  the  stony  walls,  and  fell  crippled,  gasp- 
ing, staring,  at  our  feet. 

And  when  at  last,  our  guides  and  servants, 
mounting  to  pinnacles  and  jutting  points,  and 
many  a  frieze  and  coigne  of  vantage,  placed 
blue  lights  on  them  all,  and  at  the  word  illumi- 
nated all  together,  there  was  redoubled  bedlam 
in  the  abode  of  Hecate,  and  the  eternal  calm  of 
the  Boodh  became  awful.  For  what  deeds  of 
outer  darkness,  done  long  ago  in  that  black 
hole  of  superstition,  so  many  damned  souls 
shrieked  from  their  night-fowl  transmigrations, 
it  were  vain  to  question :  there  were  no  dis- 
closures in  that  trance  of  stone. 


70  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

Back  of  all,  an  hundred  feet  from  the  true 
floor,  and  hopelessly  inaccessible,  was  a  small 
irregular  sky-light  in  an  angle  of  the  rock, 
through  which  we  plainly  discerned  a  cluster  of 
bright  stars ;  and  a  stream  of  silver-white  radi- 
ance, pouring  through  this  upon  the  swarthy 
forms  of  our  guides  and  the  white  turbans  of 
our  servants,  dimming  the  torches  in  their  hands, 
made  a  study  for  Vernet.  Ah,  could  we  but 
have  mounted  thither,  what  a  never-to-be- 
forgotten  view  of  river  and  mountain,  forest 
and  rice-field  and  banian  grove,  that  window 
had  for  us ! 

We  stopped  to  drink  from  a  curious  fountain. 
The  peak  over  the  caves  was  scooped  out  for  a 
small  lake,  from  the  bottom  of  which  the  purest 
water,  crystalline  and  cool,  percolated  through 
the  roof  of  the  cavern,  and  through  a  wondrous 
central  stalactite  that  descended  to  within  four 
feet  of  our  heads,  and  falling,  drop  by  drop, 
into  its  own  little  basin,  hollowed  in  the  rocky 
floor  by  cycles  of  monotonous  dripping,  flowed 
away  in  a  slender  thread  to  be  lost  in  some 
Tophet  of  a  chasm. 

On  emerging  from  the  caves,  we  found  a 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDL  71 

magic  structure  waiting  to  receive  us  —  an 
agreeable  shed  reared,  even  so  quickly  and  ex- 
pertly, of  canes  and  talipot  leaves,  brought 
hither  for  the  purpose  on  the  "  commissariat" 
elephant.  There  were  store  of  camp-stools, 
and  an  extemporaneous  table  of  rough  planks, 
covered  with  a  snowy  cloth,  and  laden  with  the 
viands  and  beverages  aforesaid. 

Our  "  animals"  had  been  turned  out  in  the 
paddy  to  amuse  themselves — all  except  "old 
Injin-Rubber,"  who  stood  near  by,  playing 
with  the  low  branches  of  a  crooked  sissoo.  I 
took  occasion,  while  our  laggards  were  bathing, 
to  fraternize  with  him  and  make  sociable  over- 
tures. He  was  condescending,  and  exerted 
himself  to  entertain  me — picking  up  two-anna 
pieces  with  his  nimble  finger  and  thumb,  and 
handing  them  to  his  partner  on  top  ;  crooking 
his  knee  for  me  to  mount,  and  gently  lifting 
me,  standing  erect,  to  a  level  with  his  ears,  so 
that  I  could  clamber  into  the  howdah  ;  per- 
mitting me  to  sit  astride  on  one  of  his  tusks,  and 
playfully  riding  me  a-cock-horse,  somewhat  to 
the  damage  of  my  dignity ;  making  me  grand 
salaam  by  exalting  his  trunk  above  his  head, 


72  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON  ; 

then  gracefully  waving  it  up  and  down,  at  the 
same  time  blowing  his  horn. 

Our  repast  over,  we  mounted  and  rolled 
homeward,  reaching  Moulmein  at  dusk.  At 
the  ferry,  with  many  regrets,  we  parted  from 
our  mountainous  friends.  I  embraced  "  old  Injin- 
Rubber's"  trunk,  making  him  sensible,  I  doubt 
not,  of  the  affection  I  had  conceived  for  him, 
and  which  I  retain  unaltered  to  this  day. 


OR,    UP  AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  73 


CHAPTER    IX. 

DACOITEES — A   BURMESE   HOUSE. 

MOULMEIN  had  been  always  liable,  if  not  to 
a  combined  attack,  at  least  to  the  predatory 
incursions  of  the  thieves  of  Martaban,  an  im- 
portant village  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
river.  A  year  before,  these  dacoitees  had  been 
frequent  and  successful.  The  robbers  crossed 
in  war-boats,  at  night,  the  stream  being  narrow 
where  it  separates  the  towns,  and,  in  formidable 
force  and  well  armed,  made  successful  descents 
upon  the  native  quarters  of  Moulmein,  occu- 
pied by  friendly  Burmese,  and  Bengalee  and 
Chinese  traders.  A  small  force  of  Sepoys,  which 
formed  the  patrol,  could  be  easily  intimidated 
or  overpowered,  and  the  suburbs  effectually 
pillaged,  before  the  alarm  could  reach  the  can- 
tonments, and  the  troops  be  got  under  arms. 
With  such  impunity,  indeed,  were  these  sallies 
effected  that  silence  ceased  to  be  enjoined,  and  a 

nocturnal  alarm,  accompanied  by  repeated  vol- 
4 


74  THE    GOLDEN    DAGOH ; 

leys  of  musketry  and  much  banging  of  gongs, 
was  easily  explained  by  the  nonchalant  sentinel 
who  promenaded  your  enclosure  with  the  cool 
assurance  that  it  was  "  only  some  Martaban 
dacoita." 

In  the  mean  time,  flimsy  bamboo  huts  were 
being  riddled,  men,  women,  and  children  often 
included  in  a  common  massacre — not  unat- 
tended by  grosser  outrages  which  scarcely  ad- 
mit of  recital — and  dwellings  wantonly  fired 
which  had  first  been  leisurely  pillaged.  From 
all  these  expeditions,  however,  the  booty  ob- 
tained was  light. 

Burmese  wealth,  where  it  is  to  be  suspected 
at  all,  is  (with  an  eye  to  these  dacoitees)  com- 
monly converted  into  rubies  and  concealed. 
The  wearing  apparel  of  a  people  who  go  com- 
paratively naked  is  not  considerable  ;  nor  are 
the  furniture  and  domestic  utensils  of  families 
who  feed  with  their  fingers  from  one  pumpkin 
rind  in  common,  and  repose  luxuriously  on  a 
yard  and  a  half  of  "Turkey  red." 

As  for  their  dwellings,  the  conflagration  and 
reconstruction  of  one  of  them  is  at  any  time 
little  more  than  a  frolic.  The  material  of 


OB,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDL  75 

which  they  are  built  grows  in  abundance  a  few 
yards  off  in  the  jungle.  No  expert  journey- 
man builders  are  required ;  the  art  is  taught  in 
every  family,  which  also  furnishes  its  own 
labor.  Split  bamboos  are  of  easy  carriage  ;  no 
nails  are  demanded,  for  they  are  tied  together 
with  strips  of  cane  and  thatched  with  palm  or 
other  leaves.  And  thus  a  commodious,  well- 
constructed  dwelling,  sufficiently  spacious  for 
the  accommodation  of  a  large  family,  provided 
with  various  pleasant  chambers  and  the  luxury 
(which  is  a  necessity  there)  of  an  ample  veran- 
dah round  about  the  whole,  and  all  together 
well  ventilated,  weather-proof,  and  ingeni- 
ously contrived  to  encounter  the  chances  of 
a  latitude  of  typhoons  and  rainy  seasons,  is 
erected  in  two  days,  at  no  cost,  by  a  man  and 
his  wife,  a  concubine  or  two,  and  some  "  babes 
and  sucklings." 

Such  a  structure  as  this  was  subsequently 
the  sufficiently  comfortable  hospital  of  the 
writer  (at  that  time  on  the  sick  list)  during  a 
rainy  season  at  Rangoon,  when  literally  the 
floods  do  come,  and  pour  on  enduringly  for  four 
accursed  months.  Strange  to  say,  though  many 


76  THE  GOLDEN   DAGON; 

a  crevice  in  the  roof  admitted  the  light  of 
heaven,  no  water  penetrated  through  the  same 
apertures.  This  is  doubtless  owing  to  the 
peculiar  formation  of  the  leaves  with  which 
the  thatching  is  done,  and  which  resemble  so 
many  gutters  or  grooved  tiles.  The  dampness 
of  the  ground  is  avoided  by  the  elevation  of  the 
lower  floor,  which  is  laid  across  a  frame  raised 
upon  uprights  some  two  or  three  feet  from  the 
earth,  and  leaving  a  space  beneath  where  fowls 
and  pariah  dogs  are  snugly  housed  in  common, 
and  rarely  disturbed,  save  by  the  occasional 
apparition  of  some  vagabond  of  a  wild  pig, 
whereat  the  aforesaid  pariah  dogs  incontinently 
run  away. 

My  house  consisted  of  one  large  apartment, 
(twenty  feet  square),  which  was  parlor,  office, 
and  dining-room  in  one ;  two  smaller  sleeping 
apartments  at  one  end  and  a  bath-room  at  the 
other;  the  whole  surrounded  by  a  wide  veran- 
dah, over  which  the  roof  projected  very  far, 
affording  dry  accommodations.  Here,  in  the 
dry  season  and  when  the  heats  were  greatest, 
we  made  our  lodging.  Hither  our.  couches 
and  musquito-nets  were  brought,  and  here  we 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  77 

read,  smoked,  or  talked  by  day,  and  slept  by 
night,  amid  the  howling  of  pariah  dogs  (a 
sentimental  tribe,  whose  custom  is  vociferously 
to  serenade  the  moon  when  she  is  present,  or 
diabolically  to  bewail  her  absence  when  she  is 
not),  the  hooting  of  owls  and  other  spirits  of 
darkness  and  the  air,  and  a  babel  of  sleepless 
beggars  and  boats-people  on  the  beach. 

This  not  unpleasant  abode,  together  with  its 
"  offices"  (consisting  of  kitchen,  stable,  and 
lodgings  for  the  servants)  was  completed  in  four 
days,  at  a  cost  of  two  hundred  rupees,  ($100), 
the  Burmese  contractor  finding  everything, 
inclusive  of  the  subsistence  of  his  people. 


78  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 


CHAPTER    X. 

HONORABLE   JOHN  AND  DISHONORABLE   JOHN "  THE  OLD  YAL- 

LER" — THE    FIGHTING    MISSIONARY — OUR    FIRST    STOCKADE 
A   HERO. 

HONORABLE  John  and  dishonorable  John — 
"John  Kumpny"  and  "John  Burmah" — had 
expended  several  months  in  tedious  and  boot- 
less recrimination.  On  the  part  of  the  Com- 
pany, obsolete  delays,  under  the  pretext  of  hu- 
manity, were  necessary  to  appease  a  jealous  and 
formidable  peace  party  at  home.  A  thousand 
tricks  of  procrastination,  as  successful  as  they 
were  transparent  and  vexatious,  kept  Burmese 
officials  busy  and  English  batteries  idle.  The 
tattooed  diplomats  of  Ava  required  time  for  the 
mustering  of  forces,  the  furbishing  of  old  honey- 
combed ordnance,  the  purchase  of  Captain 
Mayflower  Crisp's  condemned  muskets,  and  the 
construction  of  stockades ;  and  the  experience 
of  the  previous  war  had  taught  them  by  what 
devices  to  procure  it. 


OR,   -UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  79 

Overtures  and  threats  (in  a  "Pickwickian 
sense")  freely  interchanged  between  the  parties  ; 
concessions  half-proffered  only  to  be  seasonably 
recalled;  grievance  met  with  grievance,  ex- 
postulation with  expostulation,  etiquette  with 
etiquette,  threats  with  defiance,  amiable  ad- 
vances with  officious  protestations  of  regard  and 
regret  and  a  host  of  flowing  "  assurances  of 
distinguished  consideration ;"  flags  of  truce, 
cocked  hats,  and  "  gold  umbrellas,"  going  and 
coming,  to  the  infinite  admiration  and  awe  of 
the  lower  orders ;  and  the  by  no  means  flattering 
spectacle  of  refined  British  diplomacy  contend- 
ing, lamely  enough,  with  Burmese  treachery 
and  craft :  all  these  were  the  circumstances 
which  had  so  long  detained  the  Commodore's 
impatient  little  squadron  in  "  masterly  inac- 
tivity," to  the  infinite  disgust  of  officers,  the 
melancholy  wear  and  tear  of  men,  and  the 
frightful  consumption  of  blessed  Majesty's  coals. 
Nor  would  John  Burmah  have  so  noisily  praised 
his  gods  had  he  but  reflected  to  what  a  formi- 
dable figure  the  bill  of  damages  and  costs,  to 
be  served  upon  him  hereafter,  was  inexorably 
swelling. 


80  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ;      • 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  when,  leaving 
Moulmein,  we  approached  the  mouth  of  the 
Rangoon  river  on  the  morning  of  January  8th, 
1852.  Great  was  our  astonishment  to  find  the 
Commodore  lying  at  the  mouth  of  the  river, 
with  the  King's  ship,  a  veritable  prize.  This 
"King's  ship,"  or  "yellow  ship,"  as  we  were 
accustomed  to  style  her  indifferently,  was 
a  large  frigate,  built  for  the  Burmese  on 
European  stocks.  She  was  new,  having  only 
her  lower-masts  in,  and,  though  cut  for  heavy 
batteries,  was  unarmed  and  unmanned,  being 
provided  only  with  an  awkward  guard  of  ter- 
rified boats-people,  under  the  command  of  one 
"  Commodore"  Abdoolah,  a  clever,  amusing 
savage,  half  Burmese,  half  Malay,  who,  on  the 
strength  of  having  been  a  pirate  once,  had  got 
himself  appointed  to  the  chief  command  of  the 
navy  of  Ava — that  is,  the  King's  ship. 

Commodore  Abdoolah,  being  troubled  with 
no  scrupules  of  loyalty,  was  afterward  easily 
persuaded  to  fraternize  with  Commodore  Lam- 
bert, who  forthwith  promoted  him  from  his 
shabby-genteel  command  to  the  more  lucrative, 
if  less  glorious,  post  of  pilot-in-ordinary  for 


OK, 'UP   AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  81 


i 


our  squadron  :  in  which  capacity  he  dismissed 
his  allegiance  in  search  of  his  conscience,  and 
repeatedly  proved  himself  one  of  the  most 
consummate  villains  and  useful  men  on 
earth. 

His  fleet  and  flag-ship  had  all  been  comprised 
in  this  monstrous  naval  miscarriage,  the  "  Old 
Yaller,"  which,  after  all,  was  an  experiment 
of  some  promise,  and  no  doubt,  on  British 
'stocks  and  in  British  waters,  would  have  come 
to  something.  She  was  constructed  very  slow- 
ly, and  at  an  enormous  cost,  of  the  choicest 
teak,  (the  best  of  all  timber  for  ship-building,) 
of  which  the  finest  trees  had  been  tabooed  by 
Royal  command  for  her  behoof.  Though  a 
queer-looking  craft  "  outside,"  there  was  much 
in  her  "lines,"  and  the  nice  particulars  of  her 
construction,  to  please  the  eye  of  an  expert, 
and  she  was  surely  one  of  the  strongest  and 
most  durable,  as  she  was  one  of  the  largest, 
ships  of  her  class  afloat.  The  way  she  came  into 
our  Commodore's  hands  was  this  :  He  had  sent 
a  party  of  officers  to  negotiate  with  the  new 
Woon.  This  deputation  consisted  of  gentle- 
men from  the  Fox,  among  whom  were  Cap- 
4* 


82  THE    GOLDEN   DAQON ; 

tain  Tarleton,  the  commander  of  that  frigate, 
and  the  Commodore's  Secretary,  Mr.  Southey. 
These  were  subsequently  joined  on  shore  by 
an  American  missionary,  Mr.  K ,  a  remark- 
able person,  to  whose  influence,  and  the  mea- 
sures it  procured,  are  unquestionably  to  be 
attributed  the  events  of  that  and  the  following 
days.  The  Governor,  to  the  surprise  of  all  who 
were  not  prepared  for  Burmese  treachery,  ar- 
rogance, or  caprice — for  he  had  lately  manifest- 
ed the  sweetest  of  moods — refused  to  receive 
the  deputation,  on  the  pretext  of  a  customary 
siesta,  and  kept  the  officers  waiting  at  his  gate 
like  so  many  beggars ;  his  guards  assuring  them 
that  it  was  as  much  as  their  heads  were  worth 
to  disturb  him,  though  the  illustrious  Woon  of 
India  himself  (the  Governor- General)  should 
call  "  house!  house !"  The  plea  was  plausible 
because  consistent  with  the  custom  of  all  Indian 
people,  but  not  the  less  crafty  and  insolent  on  that 
account,  the  Governor  being  well  advised  of  the 
importance  and  friendly  purpose  of  the  depu- 
tation, and  choosing  to  make  capital  of  their 
humiliation.  Those  gentlemen  were,  most  of 
them,  uninstructed  in  the  language  and  habits 


OK,    UP    AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  85 

of  the  Burmese,  and  were  therefore  almost  at  a 
loss  how  to  act. 

At  this  crisis  our  Yankee  parson  appeared, 
who,  with  the  shrewdness  and  ready  resources 
of  Connecticut  united  the  quick  conclusions 
and  prompt  execution  of  the  backwoods.  His 
knowledge  of  the  people  and  their  language, 
derived  from  twenty  years  of  familiar  inter- 
course in  preaching  and  teaching,  was  almost 
perfect.  Besides,  he  was  not  of  the  peace 
party.  He  was  the  apostle  of  a  wholesome 
chastisement,  and  his  laborious  narratives  of 
"  harmless  wretches  poked  to  death  with  sharp 
elbows,"  and  "innocent  babes  pounded  in  a 
mortar,"  had  often  made  the  old  Commodore 
swear  and  everybody  else  laugh. 

On  this  occasion  long-suffering  and  forbear- 
ance and  the  formal  presentation  of  the  un- 
smitten  cheek  were  no  part  of  his  gospel.  He 
advised  the  deputation  of  the  insolence  of  the 
Governor,  and  of  the  tricks  attempted  to  be  put 
upon  them,  recommending  them  at  the  same 
time  to  report  his  conduct  instantly  to  the 
Commodore. 

This  they  did,  of  course,  and  the  measures 


84  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

thereupon  adopted  by  that  officer  were  at  once 
prompt  and  vigorous.  He  immediately  took 
possession  of  the  King's  ship,  warned  all  Euro- 
peans, and  others  claiming  British  protection, 
to  embark  in  the  merchantmen  in  two  hours, 
and  apprised  the  Governor  that  unless  he  came 
on  board  the  flag-ship  early  the  next  morning 
and  apologized  publicly,  and  with  all  humility, 
for  the  insult  offered  to  himself  through  his 
officers,  he  would  not  only  not  restore  the  ship, 
but  would  proceed  at  once  to  blockade  the 
rivers,  refusing  to  have  any  further  intercourse 
with  the  authorities.  Thereupon  he  dropped 
down  with  his  prize  to  a  point  below  the  town 
and  its  immediate  defenses,  while  the  foreign 
residents  of  Rangoon  proceeded  to  execute  his 
order  with  more  haste  than  prudence  or  self- 
possession.  The  merchantmen  were  preparing 
to  receive  the  persons  and  property,  as  much 
as  could  be*got  off,  of  all  Europeans,  Americans, 
British-Indian  subjects,  (comprising  Parsees, 
Armenians,  Chittagonians,  various  Mussulman 
traders,  timber-cutters,  etc.)  and  the  servants 
of  the  Honorable  Company. 
Such  wai  the  aspect  of  affairs  when  the 


OE,    UP   AND   DOWN   TUB   IREAWADDI.  85 

Phlegethon  entered  the  river.  Of  course  much 
property  was  lost.  Books,  medicines,  surgical 
instruments,  furniture,  clothing — all  the  stock 
in  trade  of  a  missionary  and  a  missionary 
doctor — were  abandoned  to  the  authorities  of 
Rangoon,  who,  accustomed  to  regard  such 
tools  of  witchcraft  with  all  a  heathen's  hor- 
ror, doubtless  consigned  them  to  their  shaven, 
yellow-coated  poonghees  to  be  purified  by  fire 
in  the  sight  of  Guadma.  It  is  much  to  be 
deplored  that  choice  collections  of  Burmese 
manuscripts  of  rare  interest  and  antiquity  were 
lost  at  this  time;  for  the  poonghees  are  no 
contemptible  scholars,  and  their  ambitious  re- 
searches are  faithfully  recorded  on  gilt-edged 
leaves  of  sandal  wood,  arranged  in  volumes, 
and  religiously  preserved  in  the  holy  places 
of  their  grotesque  monasteries. 

We  were  busily  engaged  in  towing  out  the 
merchantmen.  Meanwhile,  the  Governor  had 
sent  a  letter  to  the  Commodore  refusing  to 
apologize  in  the  manner  required.  He  had, 
moreover,  written  to  the  Governor-General, 
stating  his  reasons  for  the  insolent  attitude 
he  occupied,  and  complaining  of  Commodore 


86  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON  J 

Lambert  as  a  quarrelsome  and  overbearing 
person,  who  sent  "  a  deputation  of  drunken 
officers  and  a  low  American  missionary  to 
make  a  noise  at  his  gate."  Furthermore,  he 
threatened  that,  if  the  Commodore  presumed  to 
send  any  of  our  vessels  down  the  river  again 
without  his  permission,  his  stockades  should 
fire  on  them.  The  Commodore's  reply  to  this 
challenge  appeared  in  the  form  of  an  order  to 
three  of  the  steamers  to  proceed  down  the 
stream  and  past  the  stockades,  one  after  the 
other,  and  at  provoking  intervals. 

The  order  was  executed,  but  without  suc- 
cess ;  we  played  off  and  on  with  them  for  half 
an  hour  without  drawing  a  shot,  and  so  left  in 
disgust.  We  proceeded  to  the  mouth  of  the 
river  to  see  the  merchantmen  safely  out,  and 
then  returned  to  the  stockade  more  saucily 
than  before,  but,  finding  no  work  for  us  there, 
went  back  to  the  Commodore  :  another  message 
from  that  "gassy"  Governor,  that  if  an  attempt 
should  be  made  to  tow  out  the  King's  ship,  the 
war  should  commence  on  the  morrow  with  an 
attack  from  him. 

In  anticipation,  but  with  scarely  a  hope,  of 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  87 

being  fired  into  from  the  "  Da  Silva"  stockade, 
as  it  was  called,  the  Commodore  dropped  down 
with  the  Fox,  early  on  the  morning  of  the 
10th  of  January,  having  previously  ordered  the 
Hermes  to  follow  with  the  King's  ship  in  tow, 
and  ourselves  in  the  wake  of  them. 

As  we  came  down  we  found  the  Commodore 
lying,  broadside  on,  at  the  stockade,  the  Serpent 
having  got  aground  higher  up  the  river.  There 
was  a  hurry,  and  a  rush,  and  a  lively  flourish 
of  gold  umbrellas  on  shore,  as  the  Hermes  ap- 
proached with  her  prize.  Next  came  the  order 
"  beat  to  quarters !"  Three  minutes  afterward, 
eleven  guns  from  the  fort  right  at  the  Hermes. 
Then  up  went  the  Commodore's  signal  to  "  en- 
gage the  enemy,"  and  the  work  began.  The 
frigate,  of  course,  opened  first — broadside  after 
broadside,  a  rapid  and  annihilating  fire  slap 
through  the  works. 

The  Phlegethon  took  up  a  closer  position 
and  engaged  them  at  short  distance;  and  the 
Hermes,  which  had  cast  loose  from  the  prize, 
attacked  the  lower  stockade,  where  was  a  small 
village — half  barracks,  half  police  station. 

In  these   positions   an  uninterrupted   bom- 


88  THE   GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

bardment  was  maintained  for  two  hours  and  a 
quarter  (from  ten  to  a  quarter  past  twelve) ; 
the  enemy,  who  had  comparatively  few  ser- 
viceable guns,  expending  their  resources  in 
a  most  desultory  and  ill-directed  fire.  The 
position  of  their  batteries  being  high,  and  the 
advantages  of  "  elevation  and  depression"  not 
being  taught  in  their  exercises,  their  shots,  for 
the  most  part,  passed  over  us.  Many  times 
their  fire  was  silenced,  to  be  resumed  in  a  few 
minutes  by  some  brave  fellow  who  would  have 
his  last  crack  at  us.  So  long  as  a  red  rag  of 
breech-cloth  was  to  be  seen,  or  one  poor  spear 
glittered  in  the  sun,  we  pounded  away  with 
round  shot  and  shells,  with  an  occasional  di- 
vertissement of  "  carcases"  and  rockets. 

At  twelve  o'clock  not  a  man  was  to  be  seen  ; 
the  stockades  were  riddled  in  every  direction ; 
the  people  who  survived  had  fled  into  the  jun- 
gle (with  which,  in  every  instance,  the  stock- 
ades were  provided  as  covers  for  retreating 
garrisons);  and  one  poor  cock — the  royal,  not 
the  national  emblem,  for  in  Burmah  they 
change  these  things  with  their  monarchs — 
done  in  white  on  a  red  flag,  and  left  fluttering 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  89 

in  a  corner,  was  all  that  remained  of  the  insane 
pride  of  the  gubernatorial  blackguard. 

As  soon  as  the  ships'  firing  ceased,  the  Phle- 
gethon's  cutters  were  sent  to  destroy  their  boats 
along  shore  and  pick  up  such  arms  as  could 
be  found.  Among  the  latter  were  some  vener- 
able United  States  muskets  from  the  Harper's 
Ferry  Armory.  How  came  they  there  ? 

''  Story,  God  bless  you,  they  had  one  to  tell,  sir." 

One  pretty  incident  occurred  in  the  midst 
of  this  affair,  which  is  worth  narrating.  Just 
in  the  hottest  of  the  fire,  and  when  every  shot 
was  telling  on  the  stockade,  two  war-boats 
emerged  from  a  narrow  creek,  behind  the 
upper  angle  of  the  works,  filled  with  armed 
men — perhaps  sixty  in  each — and  commanded 
by  a  distinguished-looking  chief,  very  hand- 
somely attired,  and  wearing  a  dhar  (or  sword, 
curved  like  a  scimetar,  but  not,  like  that  wea- 
pon, terminating  in  a  broad  point),  with  golden 
hilt,  and  scabbard  of  chased  gold.  In  many 
of  these  dhars  the  hilts  were  found  to  be  hol- 
low and  filled  with  amulets,  jewels,  miniature 
images  of  Guadma,  inscriptions  on  bits  of 


90  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

silver — all  consecrated  by  the  poonghees.  A 
bearer  behind  him  held  above  his  head  the 
inseparable  gold  umbrella,  which,  in  that  coun- 
try, as  much  denotes  the  grandee  as  the  star  or 
garter  does  in  England.  Besides,  his  legs,  tat- 
tooed nearly  to  the  ankles  (for  none  but  the  King 
can  tattoo  his  feet)  were  his  patents  of  nobility. 
There  could  not  be  greater  courage  in  mor- 
tal man  than  was  displayed  by  this  fellow. 
He  brought  his  boats  down  with  the  tide  to  a 
spot  not  twenty  yards  distant  from  where  the 
frigate's  shots  were  falling,  until  he  got  di- 
rectly over  against  the  Phlegcthon.  Then  he 
stood  up  in  the  stern,  and  stamped  his  foot, 
and  waved  his  sword  toward  us,  exerting 
himself  furiously  to  induce  the  other  boat 
to  join  him  in  the  attack.  At  this  moment, 
the  officer  in  command  of  the  thirty-two- 
pounder  astern,  brought  that  gun  to  bear 
upon  him,  and  was  in  the  act  of  firing  a  shot 
which  would  have  sent  the  brave  fellow  to 
perdition,  when  the  captain  shouted  from  the 
bridge  :  "  Don't  fire  at  that  man  !  Let  no  one 
hurt  that  man!"  So  he  escaped  into  the  jun- 
gle, poor  fellow,  only  to  lose  his  head  when 


OR,    UP   AKD    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  91 

his  failure  became  known  to  the  King.  To 
escape,  in  such  a  case,  is  the  most  atrocious 
military  crime  for  which  the  laws  of  Meenyoo 
(a  sort  of  Burmese  Solon  or  Confutze)  provide. 
Within  the  stockade  we  found  only  the 
wrecks  of  bamboo  huts,  many  wooden  guns 
(huge  logs  of  teak  bored  like  pumps,  and 
braced  with  rattan),  empty  rice  pots,  and  naked 
fish-poles.  The  only  objects  of  curiosity  and 
contemplation  were  multitudinous  tom-cats,  all 
carrying  their  tails  aloft — those  appendages,  in 
all  the  specimens  I  was  permitted  to  examine, 
being  provided  with  a  sharp  twist  or  disloca- 
tion half-way  between  the  attachment  and  the 
extremity  (whether  natural  or  artificial,  for 
ornament  or  utility,  science  has  yet  to  say), 
which  imparted  to  that  feature  an  expression 
indescribably  droll,  of  mixed  waggery  and  co- 
quetry. 


92  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 


CHAPTER  XL 

OUR   BURMESE   CLIENTS — WAR-BOATS — A   FUNNY   PANIC. 

As  the  Phhgethon  descended  the  river,  skirt- 
ing the  shores  as  she  passed,  we  overhauled 
several  war-boats  well  manned,  some  of  which 
we  seized  and  destroyed,  making  prisoners  of 
the  crews,  about  a  hundred  men  in  all.  In 
other  instances,  the  people  took  to  the  water, 
first  contriving  to  capsize  their  boats,  and  sink 
the  arms  and  ammunition  they  contained, 
which,  though  harmless  enough  in  their  hands, 
they  had  reason  to  apprehend  might  prove 
fatal  in  ours. 

These  prisoners  were  conveyed  to  Moul- 
mein,  where  we  unconditionally  released  them. 
They  gladly  became  inoffensive  and  useful 
denizens  of  that  place,  after  officiously  impart- 
ing to  our  officers  much  useful  information 
touching  the  numbers  and  condition  of  their 
own  forces,  the  fortifications  then  existing  or 
in  process  of  construction,  the  movements  of 


OB,    UP   AND   DOWN   THE   IEHAWADDI.  93 

the  chiefs,  their  plans,  as  well  as  they  had 
been  able  to  ascertain  them,  and  their  corre- 
spondence with  Ava.  Indeed,  throughout  the 
war,  in  no  instance  were  prisoners  detained, 
even  when  active  partisans  and  of  high  rank, 
save  when  they  were  possessed  of  important 
information,  or  their  services  could  be  made 
available  in  some  special  emergency ;  and  even 
in  such  cases  they  suffered  under  no  restraint, 
save  their  brief  detention,  and  were  rewarded 
in  proportion  to  their  usefulness. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  campaign,  among  the 
Company's  best  friends,  were  to  be  found  many 
of  these  reclaimed  Burmese.  The  disaffection 
of  the  people  was  unanimous.  They  had  learned 
to  appreciate,  at  a  very  early  period  of  our 
intercourse  with  them,  the  personal  security, 
encouragement  to  industry,  and  freedom  of 
competition,  guaranteed  to  them  by  British 
control,  and  in  simple  faith  and  in  considerable 
numbers,  they  eagerly  accepted  British  pro- 
tection, demanding  no  assurances  of  safeguard 
beyond  a  plighted  word,  and  finding  no  odious 
conditions  attached  to  the  compact.  Only  the 
circumstances  of  their  impressment  (for  a*volun- 


94  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

teer  in  Burmah  would  be  an  anomaly),  their 
families  detained  as  hostages  for  their  good 
behavior,  and  their  experienced  apprehensions 
of  the  vengeance  of  their  masters,  deterred  them. 
Ofttimes  these  reasons  alone  impelled  whole 
towns  to  take  up  arms  and  engage  in  the  strug- 
gle against  us,  which  would  otherwise,  and  by 
choice,  have  hoisted  the  white  flag,  and  ex- 
tended the  olive-branch.  They  asked  nothing 
more  than  that  we  should  not  at  any  time,  from 
the  hour  of  their  espousing  our  cause,  withdraw 
our  countenance  and  guns.  This  would  have 
required  a  steamer  at  every  village  between  Ran- 
goon and  Prome,  which  our  force  was  inade- 
quate to  furnish.  In  this  way,  we  had  well 
nigh  lost  the  alliance,  if  not  even  the  neu- 
trality, of  Pegu. 

In  a  volume  entitled  "  Two  Years  in  Ava, 
by  an  Officer  on  the  Staff  of  the  Quartermaster- 
General's  Department"  (8vo.  London  :  Murray, 
1827),  occurs  a  description  of  Burmese  war- 
boats,  which  will  answer  well  enough  for  the 
present  period,  and  may  with  propriety  be 
quoted  here,  for  changes  in  Ava  are  unfrequent 
and  slow.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  "  Young 


OK,    UP   AND   DOWN    THE    IKRAWADDI.  95 

Burmah,"  though  that  precocious  politician 
has  got  as  far  as  Bengal  on  his  way  thither, 
and  "  Young  Bengal"  is  as  well  known  at 
Government  House  in  Calcutta,  as  "  Young 
America"  in  the  lobby  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives ;  the  meaning  of  "  progress "  is 
as  mysterious  to  them  as  the  politics  of 
Punch  or  the  Democratic  Review.  All  they 
have  learned  in  twenty-five  years,  is :  that 
British  batteries  are  not  made,  like  their  own, 
of  teak  timber ;  that  British  guns  shoot 
straighter  than  they  did  a  quarter  of  a  century 
ago ;  and  that  eighty-fours  make  more  noise 
and  hit  harder  than  thirty-twos.  If  "  Young 
Burmah"  does  not  apply  himself,  "  Young 
Japan"  may  yet  be  at  the  head  of  the  class. 

But,  speaking  of  war-boats,  the  "  Officer  on 
the  Staff  of  the  Quartermaster-General's  De- 
partment" says : 

"  The  Burmese  war-boat  is  formed  of  the  trunk  of  the 
magnificent  teak-tree,  first  roughly  shaped,  and  then  ex- 
panded by  means  of  fire,  until  it  attains  sufficient  width  to 
admit  two  people  sitting  abreast.  On  this  a  gunwale,  rising 
a  foot  above  the  water,  is  fixed,  and  the  stem  and  stern  taper 
to  a  point,  the  latter  being  much  higher  than  the  other,  and 
ornamented  with  fret-work  and  gilding.  On  the  bow  is 
placed  a  gun,  sometimes  of  a  nine  pound  calibre,  but  gener- 


96  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

ally  smaller  ;  and  the  centre  of  the  boat  is  occupied  by  the 
rowers,  varying  in  number  from  twenty  to  a  hundred,  who  in 
the  large  boats  use  the  oar,  and  in  the  small  ones  the  paddle. 
"  A  war-boat  in  motion  is  a  very  pleasing  object.  The 
rapidity  with  which  it  moves ;  its  lightness  and  the  small 
surface  above  the  water  ;  the  uniform  pulling  of  the  oar  fall- 
ing in  cadence  with  the  songs  of  the  boatmen,  who,  taking 
the  lead  from  one  of  their  number,  join  in  chorus,  and  keep 
time  with  the  dip  of  the  oars ;  the  rich  gilding  which  adorns 
the  boat,  and  the  neat  uniform  dress  (?)  of  the  crew,  place  it 
to  the  eye  of  a  stranger  in  a  curious  and  interesting  point  of 
view,  and,  in  regard  to  appearance,  induce  him,  when  con- 
trasting it  with  an  English  boat,  to  give  the  former  the 
preference.  In  point  of  swiftness,  our  best  man-of-war  boats 
could  not  compete  with  them,  and  of  this  superiority  they 
generally  availed  themselves,  when  an  action  was  impend- 
ing." 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine,  in  spite  of  the  gene- 
ral accuracy  of  this t  description,  what  manner 
of  men  these  could  have  been,  whose  "  neat 
uniform  dress"  so  pleased  the  officer.  No 
doubt  he  alludes  to  "  undress"  uniform,  which 
by  Burmese  regulation  consists  of  about  <a 
yard  of  tattooing,  half  a  yard  of  breech-cloth 
discretionary,  and  a  foot  of  the  invariable  Turkey- 
red  twisted  in  the  hair. 

I  retain  a  merry  recollection  of  the  first  war- 
boats  I  saw  at  Rangoon,  when  belligerent  mes- 
sages were  beginning  to  be  bandied  between 
the  Commodore  and  the  Governor,  who,  in- 


OE,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  97 

spired  with  Dutch  courage,  had  summoned  a 
flotilla  from  Prome. 

One  morning  thirty  of  these  gilded  craft  (the 
Quarter-master's  officer  has  described  them 
well)  came  down  the  river,  and  approached 
the  town  in  long-drawn  file.  Red  flags  fluttered 
in  the  bow  and  stern  of  each,  spears  glittered, 
and  innocent-looking  muskets.  A  thousand 
paddles,  wielded  by  two  thousand  vigorous  arms, 
swept  the  water  as  one,  "  falling  in  cadence" 
with  the  monotonous  songs  of  the  steersmen. 
A  thousand  triumphal  gongs  were  banged  as 
though  they  were  about  to  sit  down  to  simul- 
taneous dinner  at  a  thousand  Burmese  Astor 
Houses.  A  hundred  triumphal  dances  were 
executed  by  a  hundred  indecent  gentlemen  in 
Terpsichorean  gymnastics,  and  the  burden  of 
their  war-song  was  something  in  this  sort : 

"  Burmah-man  strong  man  ; 

Hum,  hum,  hah ! 
Kumpny-man  no  can  ; 

Hum,  hum,  bah ! 
Burmah-man  run  fast  ; 

Hum,  hum,  hah ! 
Kumpny-man  come  last; 
(An  innocent  complimeut). 
Hum,  hum,  hah  1" 


98  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

With  each  "  hah !"  a  vigorous  plunge  of 
every  paddle  into  the  brine  in  strictly  musical 
time,  and  the  low,  slender  craft  shot  through 
the  water  like  a  feathered  shaft,  her  bow  half- 
hid  beneath  a  pile  of  foam. 

Presently  the  Tenasscrim,  which  had  been 
hourly  expected  with  dispatches  from  Cal- 
cutta, rounded  the  point  and  approached  her 
anchorage  under  "full  power"  and  with  a 
rapid  current.  She  was  not  on  the  Gover- 
nor's programme  for  the  day,  nor  was  her 
"back-water.,"  which — being  a  phenomenon 
for  which  the  Burmese  steersmen  were  wholly 
unprepared — caught  the  boats  "  broadside  on" 
half  way  between  the  ship  and  shore,  and 
throwing  them  for  an  instant  into  ridicu- 
lous disorder,  and  their  crews  into  "a  panic, 
capsized  them  without  exception.  In  a  mo- 
ment every  gong  was  silent,  every  singer 
dumb,  every  dancer  paralyzed,  every  flag 
struck,  every  spear  lowered,  and  arms  and 
ammunition  speedily  "expended," — as  the 
Company's  pursers  say  of  stores  which  cannot 
be  accounted  for. 

Poor  wretches !  their  dismay  was  complete, 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  99 

their  astonishment  most  ludicrous,  their  songs 
of  triumph  at  once  converted  into  vociferous 
lamentation ;  and  all  would  have  been  su- 
premely droll  but  for  the  thought  that  more 
than  one  head  must  pay  for  the  fun. 

Later  in  the  progress  of  the  war,  a  superb 
specimen  of  these  war-boats  was  sent  to  the 
Queen.  It  was  discovered  by  some  of  our 
men  hauled  high  and  dry  in  the  jungle,  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  river  as  we  were  descend- 
ing from  Prome. 

Some  idea  of  its  dimensions  can  be  formed 
from  the  fact  that  it  seated  a  hundred  rowers. 
The  stern  was  spread  out  like  the  tail  of  a 
graceful  bird ;  and  the  sides,  above  the  water- 
line,  were  chastely  carved  in  a  style  of  art  un- 
approachable out  of  Burmah,  where  skill  in 
wood-carving  is  the  most  esteemed  and  lucra- 
tive of  the  handicrafts.  The  whole  was  elabo- 
rately gilded  within  and  without,  and  carved 
oars  were  left  in  their  places  lashed  to  pins 
with  thongs  of  cane,  no  row-locks  being  used. 


100  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 


CHAPTER    XII. 

"  ALL  TOGETHER,  ENGAGE  THE  ENEMY  !" — THE  STORMING  OP 
RANGOON  AND  DALLAH — THE  SWIMMER'S  CHARM. 

IT  is  a  lovely  Sunday  morning  in  the  begin- 
ning of  April,  1852.  Seventeen  British  war- 
steamers,  with  a  frigate  and  brig-of-war,  as 
well  as  thirteen  large  transports,  in  tow,  ascend 
the  Rangoon  river,  between  the  stockades  of 
Rangoon  and  Dallah,  and  falling,  with  well- 
ordered  regularity,  each  into  the  position  as- 
signed her,  let  go  their  anchors  in  long  single 
line  of  battle.  Thus  far  there  has  been  no 
interruption  from  the  Burmese  batteries,  which 
are  unaccountably  silent.  The  Commodore 
disapproves  of  Sunday  work,  and  his  orders 
are  to  'respect  the  Sabbath  unless  it  be  first 
broken  by  the  stockades. 

Scarcely,  however,  has  Her  Majesty's  steam- 
frigate,  Salamander,  dropped  into  line  and 
broken  the  almost  silence  with  the  prolonged 
rattle  of  her  chain,  when  the  boom  of  the 


OK,    UP   AND   DOWN    THE   IRRAWADDI.  101 

Pagoda  guns  is  heard ;  the  Rangoon  Woon, 
from  his  high  Citadel  in  the  Golden  Dagon, 
has  opened  a  heavy  fire  upon  his  own  people 
in  the  river-side  stockades — perhaps  to  force 
them  to  begin  the  fight,  perhaps  to  cut  off 
terrified  runaways. 

Presently  Dallah  takes  the  hint,  and  chal- 
lenges the  Rattler,  Hermes,  Mozujfer,  and  Sesos- 
tris,  which  have  waited  impatiently  for  an 
expression  of  her  wishes.  And  at  last  the 
slow  guns  of  the  outer  Rangoon  stockade  open 
their  mouths,  and  speak  unanimously  in  for- 
cible language.  Then  the  signal  flies  to  the 
Rattler's  peak — "  All  together,  engage  the 
enemy." 

Both  broadsides  at  once,  into  both  towns  at 
once — eighty-twos,  sixty-fours,  thirty-twos, 
twenty-fours,  eighteens,  twelves!  "all  to- 
gether." 

Dallah  retorts  with  spirit,  but  is  taken  in 
two  hours  and  a  half,  and  fired  by  a  party  of 
sailors  and  marines.  On  both  sides  of  the 
river  the  Burmese  display  distinguished  cour- 
age and  endurance  under  a  feu  (Penfcr  from  the 
shipping,  of  shells  and  round-shot,  and  shrap- 


102  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

nell,  and  grape,  and  canister,  and  rockets,  and 
carcasses. 

A  Burmese  chieftain,  mounted  in  an  embra- 
sure of  the  Rangoon  stockade,  leans  against  a 
flag-staff  and  directs  his  gunners,  his  person 
bravely  exposed  to  the  storm.  Suddenly  he 
disappears  in  the  smoke — God  knows  whither. 

A  fair  breach  is  opened,  and  a  crowd  of 
naked,  delirious  wretches  are  seen  dragging 
down  a  huge  field-piece  on  great  clumsy 
wooden  wheels,  to  close  it.  All  that  are  left 
from  a  tornado  of  grape  are  finished  by  the 
bayonets  of  the  "  Royal  Irish."  who  meet  the 
enemy  in  the  gap. 

Some  wounded  prisoners  are  brought  to  our 
surgeons.  On  the  way,  one  poor  fellow,  wild 
with  pain  and  fear,  breaks  from  our  men  and 
takes  to  the  water  of  a  wide  creek,  which  sets  in 
between  the  stockades.  Snatching  from  his  neck 
the  charm  which  is  suspended  there — a  round 
shell  of  lacquered  cane,  filled  with  miniature 
idols,  bits  of  silver  foil  bearing  sacred  inscrip- 
tions, and  perhaps  some  hieroglyphic  impos- 
ture that  he  believes  is  his  horoscope,  the 
whole  duly  prayed  for  and  paid  for,  as  a  busi- 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  103 

ness  transaction  between  his  poonghee  and 
himself — he  casts  it  upon  the  water  far  before 
him,  in  the  direction  of  the  opposite  bank. 
Then,  expertly,  and  with  an  extraordinary 
exertion  of  strength,  making  an  eddying  wake, 
he  strikes  out  for  it. 

Balls  patter  in  the  stream  thickly  around  his 
head,  but  spare  him  always,  as  though  there 
were  indeed  some  virtue  in  his  charm,  his 
prayers,  his  incantations ;  for,  as  often  as  he 
reaches  his  floating  superstition,  he  hugs  it  to 
his  heaving  breast — and  for  a  space,  seemingly 
forgetful  of  the  danger,  he  pauses  and  his  lips 
move  rapidly.  Again,  rising  waist-high  in  the 
water,  and  tossing  his  brown  arms  aloft,  he 
throws  his  shell  across  the  stream,  and  dives, 
and  dives  again  ;  and  when  presently  he  comes 
panting  to  the  surface,  he  dashes  the  water 
from  his  straining  eyes,  utters  a  cry  of  joy  as 
he  catches  sight  of  his  senseless  toy,  and  strikes 
out  lustily. 

Our  men  are  touched  with  admiration,  with 
compassion ;  they  will  not  hurt  him  ;  the  few 
shots  they  fire  now  are  but  in  the  rude  sport  of 
soldiers  and  sailors  warm  with  the  chase ;  thev 


104  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON  ', 

are  careful  for  him,  are  even  anxious  for  his  life  ; 
and  when  at  last  he  reaches  the  opposite  bank, 
and  throwing  himself  prostrate,  kissing  his 
charm  and  clasping  it  to  his  forehead,  lies  pant- 
ing but  safe,  they  treat  him  to  three  cheers. 

Now  up  goes  the  British  ensign  on  a  long 
bamboo  (for  the  Burmese  have  cut  down  their 
flag-staff,  surmounted  by  the  Sacred  Goose,  to 
save  it  from  desecration),  and  our  people  have 
possession  of  a  formidable  angle  of  the  outer 
stockade. 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN   THE   IRBAWADDI.  105 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

KEMMENDINE — FIEE-EAFTS — CONFIDING  CREATURES  ! — A  WOOD- 
EN GUN — THE  STOCKADE — THE  ASPECT  AND  THE  VOICES 
OF  THE  NIGHT RANGOON  IS  OUKS BATHING  UNDER  DIF- 
FICULTIES. 

AT  this  point  in  the  assault,  the  Phlegethon 
was  ordered  to  take  the  Serpent  in  tow,  and 
proceed  past  the  "King's  Wharf"  and  upper 
Stockade,  to  Kemmendine,  some  four  or  five 
miles  distant  by  a  sharp  bend  in  the  river — not 
half  so  far  by  land. 

Kemmendine  had  been  always  a  rendezvous 
for  war-boats.  During  the  first  Burmese  war, 
numbers  of  fire-rafts,  ingeniously  contrived  of 
canes,  loose  planks,  and  brush,  saturated  with 
petroleum  and  ignited,  were  constructed  there 
and  launched  on  the  river  to  drift  down  upon 
the  British  fleet,  to  which  they  were  dan- 
gerous as  well  as  troublesome.  A  force,  sent 
by  Sir  Archibald  Campbell  to  burn  the  place, 
met  with  obstinate  and  damaging  resistance. 

Our  orders  were  to  take  Kemmendine  at 
5* 


106  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

once,  destroying  all  stockades  and  war-boats. 
As  we  passed  the  King's  wharf  the  batteries 
there  opened  brisk  fire  upon  us.  We  stayed 
to  fight  them  for  half  an  hour,  when,  the  Sala- 
mander coming  to  our  relief,  we  left  them  to  be 
finished  by  her,  and  pushed  on  to  Kemmen- 
dine. 

As  we  steamed  up  the  river  and  past  the 
village,  the  people  appeared  to  be  deserting  it. 
Their  small  boats  were  plying  up  and  down 
and  across  the  stream,  seemingly  laden  with 
household  goods.  As  we  passed  through  them, 
they  made  "grand  salaam,  waving  their  arms  iu 
gestures  of  welcome  and  God-speed.  Some  on 
the  ghauts  and  banks,  and  in  front  of  the 
houses,  greeted  us  with  songs  and  triumphal 
dances,  with  beating  of  tom-toms  and  gongs, 
and  flourishing  of  white  flags. 

One  fellow,  who,  by  his  airs  and  his  fine 
clothes,  we  took  for  a  person  of  note,  hailed  the 
ship  and  treated  us  to  an  off-hand  speech,  to  the 
effect  that  he  was  delighted  to  welcome  us  to 
those  waters,  and  begged  us  to  accept,  in  the 
name  of  Kemmendine,  his  respectful  assurances 
of  distinguished  consideration.  He  was  happy 


OR,    TJP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  107 

to  say  that,  a  little  higher  up  the  river,  an  inso- 
lent stockade,  commanded  by  an  insane  dacoit, 
would  be  found,  where,  he  had  no  doubt,  a 
brilliant  victory  awaited  his  brave,  handsome, 
and  cunning  friends,  the  Inglee  Rajahs. 

We  left  him  "hyfalutin,"  and,  in  half  an 
hour,  came  upon  a  rtmarkably  strong  stockade. 
On  the  bank,  between  it  and  the  river,  a 
party  of  nearly  naked  fellows,  commanded  by  a 
busy-body  in  a  red  helmet,  were  training  a 
monstrous  black  gun  on  us,  which  they  had 
mounted  upon  some  logs  of  teak.  The  thing 
certainly  looked  formidable,  and  we  had  reason 
to  apprehend  that  a  well-directed  shot  from  it 
would  cut  us  clean  in  two.  Before  we  could 
bring  our  forward  gun  to  bear — the  channel 
being  too  narrow,  and  the  current  too  strong, 
to  enable  us  to  place  the  ship  in  position,  en- 
cumbered as  we  were  with  the  Serpent — they 
fired. 

Although  they  seemed  to  have  got  nearly 
the  proper  bearings  and  elevation,  their  shot 
flew  wide — we  could  not  discover  whither. 
Crowding  on  steam,  we  pressed  forward  to 
reply,  withholding  our  fire  for  a  short  range 


108  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

and  a  sure  aim.  With  surprising  celerity  they 
had  reloaded,  and  now  fired  again.  This  time 
we  heard  their  shot  sing  as  it  passed  over  us, 
as  high  as  the  mainyard. 

The  explosion  was  terrific — even  the  ship 
trembled.  When  the  dense  pile  of  vapor  rolled 
away,  all  that  was  to  be  seen  of  gun  or  gunners 
was  a  disordered  pile  of  smoking  logs,  some 
fragments  of  wood  floating  on  the  stream, 
half  a  dozen  blackened  forms  prostrate  and 
writhing,  and  one  or  two  yelling  savages  scam- 
pering into  the  jungle.  The  gun  was  but  a 
teak-log  bored,  and  bound  with  bamboo  strips 
and  rattan ;  they  had  crammed  it  to  the  muz- 
zle, and  it  had  burst — the  engineers  were  hoist 
with  their  own  petard. 

We  at  once  briskly  attacked  the  stockade, 
which  defended  itself  with  spirit.  When  night 
fell,  having  accomplished  but  little  with  our 
heaviest  fire,  except  to  silence  their  guns  for 
the  present,  we  dropped  down,  opposite  the 
village,  and  waited  till  daylight  to  renew  the 
attack.  All  that  night,  as  we  afterward  learned, 
the  villagers  were  engaged — not,  as  we  at  first 
generously  imagined,  in  the  innocent  and  con- 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  109 

fiding  labor  of  removing  their  little  alls,  but — 
in  conveying  boat-load  after  boat-load  of  rice 
arid  fresh  water,  and  mats  with  small  arms,  and 
sometimes  even  heavy  guns,  concealed  beneath 
them,  into  the  stockade.  Every  man  in  those 
boats  had  left  in  the  village  a  wife  or  an  aged 
parent,  every  woman  a  child  or  a  young  sister, 
as  a  hostage  for  their  faithful  and  successful 
execution  of  the  enterprise.  On  their  courage 
and  their  cunning  hung  many  a  dear  life. 

At  day-break  we  returned  to  the  stockade 
and  began  six  hours  of  uninterrupted  assault, 
covering  every  loop-hole,  and  making  a  target 
of  every  Burmah  who  dared  to  show  a  lock 
of  his  hair,  much  more  the  color  of  his  breech- 
cloth.  But,  although  we  afforded  them  no 
opportunity  to  retaliate,  they  sustained  but 
small  damage  at  our  hands.  Their  stockade 
was  one  of  the  strongest  in  the  country.  A 
square  of  five  hundred  feet  on  each  face  was 
inclosed  in  a  double  row  of  high  teak  logs,  of 
enormous  girth,  driven,  like  piles,  deeply  into 
the  earth,  and  as  close  together  as  possible. 
To  these  was  added,  on  both  sides,  an  embank- 
ment of  twelve  feet  without  an  opening.  The 


110  THE    GOLDEN   DAG ON; 

interior  was  intrenched  in  every  direction — 
the  trenches  eight  feet  deep  and  covered  in 
with  the  heaviest  timbers,  so  as  to  be  quite 
bomb-proof.  On  all  sides  the  approaches  were 
armed  with  a  sort  of  vegetable  bayonets,  short 
bamboos,  sharpened  and  stuck  upright  in  -the 
ground. 

Our  shot  seldom  reached  them,  save  when 
they  voluntarily  exposed  themselves,  as  in  ex- 
tinguishing, by  means  of  great  hollow  bamboos 
filled  with  water,  the  flames  which  eight  times 
our  carcasses  lighted  in  vain — the  teak  was 
green,  and  would  not  burn.  One  man — per- 
haps an  "  Invulnerable"  under  the  inspiration 
of  opium — climbed  to  the  top  of  the  stockade, 
and  struck  up  a  war-dance.  Our  second  officer 
knocked  off  his  head  with  a  round  shot. 

An  attempt  was  made  to  land  a  storming 
party ;  but  hardly  had  the  boats  left  the  ships' 
sides,  before  the  face  of  the  stockade  was  all 
alive  and  yelling,  and  our  men  were  immedi- 
ately repulsed  with  a  wild  but  very  dangerous 
fire,  from  near  a  thousand  bad  muskets.  We 
covered  the  retreat  with  our  guns,  and  safely 
drew  off  the  stormers.  At  night,  our  ammuni- 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      Ill 

tion  being  almost  expended,  we  again  dropped 
down  to  the  village. 

Next  morning  we  sent  to  Rangoon  for  reen- 
forcements — a  stronger  storming  party,  and 
heavier  guns.  Joined  by  the  Mozvffer  and 
Ferooz,  we  took  the  stockade  in  an  hour,  with- 
out a  casualty.  The  other  steamers,  with  the 
Serpent,  returned  forthwith  to  Rangoon,  we 
remaining  to  burn  the  stockade. 

That  was  a  dark  night — no  moon,  and  a 
cloudy  sky ;  but  as  we  lay  off  Kemmendine, 
listening  to  the  roar  of  our  artillery  at  Rangoon, 
the  booming  of  mortars,  the  ringing  of  tubes,  the 
whizzing  of  rockets,  the  rattle  of  musketry,  and, 
now  and  then,  the  hurrahs  of  British  and  the 
yells  of  Burmese,  our  landscape  was  all  alight 
with  fire-balls  floating  over  the  town,  the  burst- 
ing of  shells  around  the  tinkling  tee  of  the 
Golden  Dagon,  and  in  the  high  seat  of  Boodh's 
unshaken  calm — the  sky  redly  uniformed  in  the 
reflection  of  Rangoon's  lurid  flames,  the  crack 
ling  conflagration  of  the  stockades,  the  chain 
of  beacon-fires  linking  the  northern  hills. 

In  the  jungle  there  was  panic,  and  all  its  voices 
were  up — tigers  growled,  and  wild  dogs  ran 


112  THE   GOLDEN   DAOON  ; 

howling  to  and  fro.  Wings,  blacker  than  the 
darkness,  flapped  among  the  shadows  heavily. 
Overhead  there  was  a  whispering  as  of  many 
witches,  and  the  Peguan  nightingale  shrieked 
with  the  tongues  of  all  the  angry  Nats,  and 
of  the  damned  that  fret  in  the  midst  of  the 
great  stone  Silipatavi. 

At  dawn,  three  Chittagong  men,  who  had 
formerly  been  merchants  of  Rangoon,  came  out 
of  the  jungle,  where  they  had  been  hiding  since 
the  bombardment  began,  and  implored  us  to 
rescue  them.  Their  worldly  goods  were  all 
gone,  they  said — seized  by  the  Woon,  when 
they  fled ;  they  were  beggars  now,  and  they 
trembled  for  their  lives.  Rangoon  was  taken 
— our  people  in  the  Pagoda,  and  the  Burmese 
flying  into  the  jungle.  On  the  second  day  of 
the  assault,  the  Governor,  with  his  household 
and  some  favorites  of  his  court,  had  escaped  on 
elephants,  burning  villages  in  his  flight,  and 
slashing  among  his  own  people,  in  the  wanton- 
est  lust  of  blood. 

The  Pluto  came  and  confirmed  the  story- 
Rangoon  was  ours,  and  the  British  ensign  fly- 
ing on  the  upper  gallery  of  the  Golden  Dagon  ! 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRBAWADDI.  113 

That  afternoon  the  Purser  and  I  landed  at 
Kemmendine  with  a  watering  party — the  village 
seemingly  deserted,  and  picturesquely  desolate. 
A  few  rods  from  the  landing  brought  us  to  the 
one  long,  narrow  street,  of  dirty,  low-eaved 
bamboo  huts,  which,  following  the  line  of  the 
shore,  was  floored  with  little  black  bricks,  and 
roofed  with  multitudinous  and  various  foliage, 
downhanging  and  dense.  A  pariah  dog  or  two, 
skulking  and  spy-like;  a  forgotten  cat  or  two, 
singed  and  sorry-looking  ;  one  famished  mina, 
screaming  from  a  cage,  were  all  the  inhab- 
itants. 

Two  or  three  hundred  yards  from  the  land- 
ing, to  the  left,  in  the  middle  of  the  village  and 
of  the  pavement,  was  the  well  from  which  our 
men  filled  their  casks.  To  the  right,  and  much 
nearer,  was  a  shadowy  banian  grove,  through 
which  a  whispering  alley  led  up  to  a  temple, 
many  pinnacled  and  grotesquely  carved,  where- 
in was  an  ampitheatre  of  shelves,  piled  high 
with  images — little  and  big,  of  wood  and  stone, 
and  lead  and  plaster — of  the  Stagnant  Calm.  A 
rude  paling  inclosed  the  whole,  and  on  the  right 
was  a  thicket  of  thorny  underbush. 


114  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

In  the  pavement  before  the  porch  was  an- 
other well,  with  cord  and  bucket,  and  I  staid 
to  bathe  amid  the  embowered  beauty  and  cool- 
ness, and  quiet  and  security.  The  Purser  mount- 
ed guard,  with  a  musket  we  had  brought. 

Suddenly  there  was  a  stampede  in  the  thick- 
et, and  five  Burmese,  armed  with  muskets, 
broke  through  the  palisade,  at  the  poonghee- 
house,  and  came  down  on  us — their  breech- 
cloths,  their  top-knots,  their  shining,  naked 
skins  frightfully  near  to  us.  At  the  moment 
of  their  apparition  my  body-guard's  back  was 
turned  to  them  ;  he  was  marching  down  the 
alley,  playfully  going  through  the  exercise;  I 
was  quite  naked,  and,  of  course,  unarmed.  The 
Purser,  turning  quickly,  saw  at  once  how  it 
was.  Leveling  his  musket,  which  had  its  bayo- 
net fixed,  he  ran  at  the  fellows,  at  the  same 
time  shouting  for  our  men — a  vocal  exercise  in 
which  I  joined.  The  Burmese  turned  at  once, 
and  precipitately  fled  ;  leaping  the  palisade. and 
crouching  low,  they  glided  through  the  under- 
bush  and  disappeared.  We  returned  to  our 
party. 


OE,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      115 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

MAGNANIMOUS  ! — THE   STOCKADES   OF   RANGOON — THE  STREETS 

THE   MACHINERY    OF    BOODHISM THE    GOLDEN    DAGON 

THE  GREAT  AND  LITTLE  BELLS — BOODH  AND  "  BACCY" THE 

INGATHERING YOUNG   SHWAY-MADOO. 

BUT  a  few  days  had  passed  since  the  taking 
of  Rangoon,  when  the  late  Woon — now  an  out- 
law, no  better  than  a  dacoit,  without  distinc- 
tion, without  reverence,  without  authority, 
without  followers  (save  a  few  desperadoes, 
who,  having  shared  his  crimes,  and  fearing  to 
share  his  punishment,  made  a  virtue  of  sharing 
his  desperate  flight)  without  abiding  place, 
marking  his  drunken  progress  with  indiscrimi- 
nate rapine  and  slaughter — had  the  insolence  to 
send  to  General  Godwin  a  deputation,  with  a 
flag  of  truce,  to  say :.  that  the  Governor  of 
Rangoon  addressed  himself  to  the  great  Cap- 
tain of  the  Inglee  Rajahs,  because  the  Captain 
was  a  very  rich  and  powerful  man  ;  so,  also, 
was  the  Governor  of  Rangoon,  who  acknow- 
ledged that  the  Inglee  Rajahs  had  beaten  him  in 


116  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

one  great  battle — undertaken  when  his  omens 
were  bad — with  terrible  loss  on  both  sides. 
This,  however,  was  but  the  first  of  three  terrific 
engagements ;  in  the  two  that  were  yet  to  be 
fought,  the  Golden  Foot  would  surely  trample 
upon  its  enemies.  Therefore,  the  Governor  of 
Rangoon,  entertaining  no  bitterness  of  resent- 
ment against  the  Inglee  Rajahs,  but  only  the 
magnanimity  of  an  invincible  warrior,  gener- 
ously advised  the  rich  and  powerful  Captain, 
Godwin  Woon,  to  retire  in  time.  To  which  the 
General's  reply  was  more  military  than  diplo- 
matic, and  certainly  extremely  ungrateful  : 

"  Tell  the  impudent  beggar  to  go  to Sili- 

patavi ;  I  mean  to  hang  him  yet,  even  if  I  have 
to  take  him  from  among  his  women." 


Rambling  through  the  streets  of  Rangoon, 
and  around  the  Great  Pagoda,  observing  the 
fortifications,  I  did  not  cease  to  wonder  how  it 
could  ever  have  been  taken.  Surely,  one 
thousand  English  or  Americans  would  hold 
just  such  a  place  forever,  against  twenty 
thousand  of  their  own  countrymen.  Yet  the 
garrison  of  Rangoon  numbered  fifty  thousand. 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  117 

Shway-Dagoung,  the  Golden  Dagon — an 
octagonal  pagoda  of  solid  masonry,  without  an 
opening,  holding  up  its  jingling  coronal  even 
with  the  spire  of  the  proud  St.  Paul's,  gilded 
from  base  to  pinnacle,  tarnishing  in  the  rains 
of  many  wet,  and  glaring  in  the  suns  of  many 
dry  seasons — formed  the  centre  of  an  area  of 
fortification  four  miles  square,  and  planned  in 
this  wise :  The  outer  lines  were  marked  by  a 
stockade,  having  four  equal  sides,  of  four  miles 
each,  one  side  fronting  on  the  river.  Many 
small  batteries  flanked  this  at  different  points  ; 
and  the  ground  between  it  and  the  river,  and  on 
both  sides,  bristled  with  such  vegetable  bayo- 
nets as  those  we  found  at  Kemmendine — short 
flinty  bamboos,  planted  thickly,  their  sharp- 
ened points  projecting  some  six  or  eight 
inches.  These  were  for  the  benefit  of  storm- 
ing parties.  Beside  these,  mines  of  gunpowder 
were  discovered,  ready  to  be  sprung  by  means 
of  trains  conducted  into  the  jungle. 

Within  this  largest  stockade,  which  com- 
pletely encompassed  the  new  town  of  Ran- 
goon— for  the  old  town,  along  the  river's  edge, 
as  it  was  a  few  months  previous,  had  been 


118  THE   GOLDEN   DAdON  ; 

carried  back,  bodily  as  it  were,  two  miles  and 
set  down  around  the  Pagoda — were  two  others, 
the  last  or  innermost,  which  was  by  far  the 
strongest  of  the  three,  immediately  enclosing 
the  Dagon.  These  were,  all  alike,  constructed 
of  the  heaviest  teak  timber,  loop-holed  every  few 
yards — giant  logs,  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet 
high,  with  deep  ditches,  and  bamboo  chevaux- 
de-frise,  such  as  I  have  described,  in  front,  and 
solid  embankments  of  brick  and  earth,  inside 
and  out.  Within,  were  numerous  deep  trenches, 
like  those  of  Kemmendine. 

Around  and  between  the  stockades,  the 
ground  was  covered  with  villainous  jun- 
gle, affording  a  perfect  cover  for  Burmese  mus- 
ketry in  the  day-time,  and  for  tigers,  dacoits, 
and  vagabond  dogs  at  night. 

Along  the  walls,  in  the  ditches,  on  the  plat- 
forms under  the  guns,  our  men  found  hundreds 
of  Burmese  bodies.  The  Governor  had  chained 
his  gunners  to  their  own  engines,  and  so  they 
were  found  dead.  While  the  wives  and  young 
maidens  brought  powder,  and  the  links  of  chain 
that  were  fed  to  the  guns  for  want  of  proper 
shot,  the  aged,  the  crippled,  and  the  babes 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      119 

were  penned  trembling  in  the  trenches,  to  an- 
swer with  their  lives  for  the  courage  and  loy- 
alty of  men  whose  fear  was  greater  than  their 
own,  and  who  had  only  oppression  to  be  faith- 
ful to. 

The  only  passage,  then,  through  these  con- 
centric lines  of  stockade,  and  so  on,  up  to  the 
Dagon,  was  by  a  paved  causeway  of  two  miles 
and  a  half,  over  recent  bridges  of  logs  thrown 
across  ditches ;  through  gates  where  the  anxi- 
ous regards  of  a  dozen  cannon  were  gathered  in 
a  focus  ;  through  dim,  barbaric  streets,  full  of 
the  devices  of  Boodhistic  deviltry  and  all  man- 
ner of  pitiful  un-Christness — streets,  once  all 
bosky  and  picturesquely  vista'd,  now  encum- 
bered with  the  wreck  of  war,  and  disfigured  with 
the  rubbish  of  haste  confounded  and  panic- 
stricken  ;  past  many  a  dark,  mysterious  poon- 
ghee-house,  whose  grotesque  gods  kept  grim 
watch  within,  and  whose  portals  were  guarded 
by  most  hideous  warders — staring  creatures 
cut  in  stone,  and  in  the  mixed  fashion  of  cock, 
crocodile  and  tiger. 

And  so  you  reach  the  Golden  Dagou,  the 
pagoda  of  first  importance  in  the  empire,  hav- 


120  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

ing,  beneath  its  ponderous  base,  millions  of  ru 
pees  in  gold  and  silver  and  jewels,  the  offerings 
— partly  voluntary,  partly  extorted — of  millions 
of  poor  fanatics,  trembling,  and  at  their  wits' 
end,  between  the  dhars  of  their  captains,  and 
the  curses  of  their  priests. 

By  a  lofty  flight  of  dark  stone  steps  under  a 
low  roof  fantastically  sculptured,  and  between 
great  balustrades,  mottled  green  and  black  with 
moss  and  damps,  whereon  two  swarthy  croco- 
diles measure  their  monstrous  length,  their 
gaping  jaws  supported  by  colossal  Nats,  you 
mount  to  the  upper  of  the  two  vast  terraces 
which  encircle  the  base  of  this  proud  monu- 
ment, reared  to  the  Stagnant  Calm. 

By  a  narrow  gate  you  pass  out  upon  the 
wide  platform  of  the  upper  terrace,  and  there 
stands  Shway-Dagoung  in  all  his  golden  glory 
— acres  of  senseless  shrines  about  his  knees, 
and  on  his  towering  head,  three  hundred  and 
thirty  feet  aloft,  a  crown  of  multitudinous  tiny 
bells,  swayed  by  many  a  playful  breeze  in 
gusts  of  silver  tinkling. 

Lesser  pagodas,  griffins,  sphynxes,  and  all 
manner  of  barbaric  nondescripts,  hold  the 


OE,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  121 

ground  around.  To  the  four  "airts"  four 
carved  and  pillared  temples  face,  wherein  are 
lodged  the  high  company  of  Boodh.  The 
eastern  of  these  surpasses,  in  its  arabesque 
cornices,  triple  roof,  spiral  columns,  and  airy 
spire,  the  dreams  of  the  boy  Solomon — a  gold- 
en throne,  a  temple  all  of  gold. 

Near  the  pagoda,  under  a  sacred  canopy, 
still  golden,  of  its  own,  from  gilded  beams 
hewn  from  the  proudest  teaks  in  Pegu,  hangs, 
within  two  feet  of  the  ground,  the  Great  Dagon 
bell.  Straining  my  arm  from  the  shoulder 
under  its  vibrating  rim,  I  could  touch  only 
with  my  finger-tips  its  inner  edge ;  yet  never 
did  my  Lady's  silver  toilet-bell  utter  mellower 
music.  Pali  inscriptions  and  hieroglyphics 
chase  its  surface  from  shank  to  rim ;  and  a 
dozen  funny  demons  of  indescribable  absurdity 
guard  the  portal  of  its  lodge. 

To  the  Burmese  these  bells  are  the  dearest 
objects  of  pride  and  veneration.  At  the  dedi- 
cation of  any  pagoda  of  consequence,  the  people 
flock,  from  all  the  country  round  about,  to 
the  founding  of  its  great  bell,  and  cast  into 

the  molten  mass,  with   eager  devotion,  bits 
6 


122  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

of  copper,  brass,  silver,  and  gold,  and  even 
jewels.  The  silver  scabbards  and  gold  betel 
boxes  of  the  men ;  the  polished  jars  of  house- 
wives ;  the  ear-rings  and  store  of  pretty  bau- 
bles, much  prized  by  coquettish  maidens ;  the 
armlets,  anklets,  and  toelets  of  nautch  girls ; 
even  the  small  metal  toys  of  the  young  chil- 
dren, and  here  and  there  a  bit  of  shining  foil 
called  by  a  baby's  name,  are  flung  in  without 
stint,  that  the  Nats  may  be  propitiated  and  the 
demons  averted. 

Everywhere  within  the  pagoda  grounds 
lesser  bells  are  to  be  seen,  of  a  like  costly  com- 
position and  almost  unearthly  sweetness  of 
tone.  Tongueless,  all  of  them,  and  stationary, 
a  blow  on  the  rim  from  a  joint  of  bamboo  con- 
jures their  melody.  The  hundreds  of  young 
pagodas  which  are  gathered  in  the  shadow  of 
Shway-Dagoung,  have,  each,  their  tinkling  coro- 
nets. Unlike  the  giants  of  their  kindred,  these 
little  bells  have  tongues,  from  which  light 
gilded  leaves  are  hung  to  catch  the  wandering 
breeze ;  and,  from  every  landmark  on  the  river, 
every  headland  of  noticeable  height,  their  songs 
come  down  forever.  For  the  Burmese  are 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      123 

profuse  in  pagodas,  and  seem  sincerely  to  exult 
in  the  labor,  danger,  and  patience  with  which 
those  shining  jewels  are  flung  up,  by  the  hand 
of  superstition,  to  the  tops  of  apparently  im- 
possible crags. 

During  the  first  Burmese  war  the  British 
would  have  transplanted  the  Great  Dagon  bell 
to  London,  but,  in  the  effort  to  embark  it,  its 
great  weight  carried  away  the  tackle ;  it  cap- 
sized the  boat  in  which  it  had  been  shipped, 
and  sank  to  the  bottom  of  the  river.  The 
Burmese  fished  it  out  again  and  restored 
it  to  its  sacred  office ;  and  ever  since,  they 
have  believed  that  so  long  as  its  voice  can 
be  heard  in  the  land  Burmah  cannot  be  di- 
vided. 

But  where  was  all  the  picturesqueness,  all 
the  "keeping" — where  were  the  "calm,  eter- 
nal eyes,"  when  the  genius  of  shops  sat  in  the 
high  seat  of  Boodh,  and  the  "  18th  Royal 
Irish"  had  their  quarters  at  the  head  of  the 
grand  staircase,  amid  tall  gilded  columns  and 
imperturbable,  absent-looking  giants  of  gods 
— pipe-clay  abounding  on  their  altars,  and  red 
coats  and  flannel  shirts,  short  pipes  and  baccy- 


124  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

boxes,  hanging  around  the  necks  of  Guadma 
and  his  three  forerunners  ? 

And  yet,  even  so  soon,  all  the  more  harm- 
less portion  of  the  Rangoon  population — small 
traders  and  handicraftsmen,  salt-dryers  and 
boats-people — were  flocking  in  by  companies 
of  thousands  to  reestablish  themselves  in  their 
old  places,  inspired  with  confidence  in  British 
magnanimity  and  mercy,  and  eager  to  escape 
to  foreign  protection  from  the  ruthless  extor- 
tion and  tiger-like  blood-thirstiness  of  their 
native  masters.  For  many  days,  looking  from 
the  upper  terrace  across  the  low-lying  jungle, 
to  where  the  silver  skirts  of  the  Salween  spar- 
kled, we  beheld  the  long-drawn  procession  of 
elephants  and  ponies,  and  oxen  with  carts,  and 
men  with  parts  of  bamboo  houses,  and  women 
with  domestic  utensils  and  rice,  and  little  chil- 
dren with  pigs,  and  fowls,  and  kittens — the 
happy  march  of  a  helpless  barbarism  bringing 
its  tribute  of  trust  and  reliance  to  an  all-sub- 
duing civilization. 

Before  I  close  this  chapter,  I  must  say  what 
I  mean  by  "  young  pagodas." 

Twenty-four  hundred  years  ago,  two  famous 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      125 

princes,  brothers,  on  the  eve  of  some  stirring  en- 
terprise, military  or  political,  built,  gilded,  and 
consecrated  a  little  pagoda — a  mere  "  butcha," 
as  they  say  in  India,  a  brat,  of  some  twenty  feet 
or  so,  but  perfect  in  his  beautiful  proportions  as 
he  is  this  day-  Therefore  they  found  favor  with 
the  Nats,  and  attained  to  power  and  proud  dis- 
tinction. So,  other  Woons  and  princes  and 
great  captains  made  much  of  the  young  Shway- 
Madoo,  and  each  in  turn  gave  him,  according 
to  his  means,  one  or  two  or  three  layers  of 
bricks  and  stucco,  and  a  new  coat  of  gold  over 
all,  and  a  larger,  finer,  and  more  melodious 
tee;  and  thus  he  attained  to  his  present  exalted 
stature,  and  held  up  his  head  beside  the  highest 
in  the  land,  and  became  the  haughty  Shway- 
Madoo  Prah,  the  Golden  Supreme  of  Pegu. 

And  thus  many  pagodas,  which  are  lofty  and 
illustrious  now,  were  once  little  fellows  that 
might  have  stood  erect  inside  the  Great  Dagon 
bell — so  little,  that  the  children  who  were 
learning  to  count  could  make  a  lesson  of  the 
bells  in  their  tees.  Sometimes,  as  happened  to 
Shway-Dagoung,  the  growth  of  the  young 
pagoda  was  secretly  helped  by  the  Nats,  who, 


126  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

when  pleased  with  the  liberality  and  zeal  of 
its  founder,  would  contribute  as  much  to  the 
progress  of  the  work  in  a  single  night  as  the 
pious  builders  of  the  shrine  had  been  able  to 
effect  in  a  whole  moon. 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IKKAWADDI.      127 


CHAPTEE   XV. 

THE     LOTOS-TANKS — TESTING     THE     WATER — THE     POONGHEE- 
HOUSE — BLACK-ART. 

THAT  May-day  out-Julyed  July,  when  we  of 
the  Phlegethon  set  out  from  Rangoon  on  an  ex- 
cursion to  head  off  the  Dallah  Woon,  and  him 
of  Ingeboo,  who  were  said  to  be  somewhere 
up  the  Irrawaddi,  levying  on  the  villages  and 
driving  in  recruits.  Having  instructions  to 
ascertain  on  the  way  all  the  facilities  of  water- 
ing for  the  shipping  and  troops,  and  having 
almost  empty  casks  ourselves,  we  dropped 
anchor  next  morning  at  a  picturesque  landing 
place  in  a  quiet  cove,  where  were  a  poonghee- 
house,  some  pagodas,  and  a  numerous  banian. 
In  this  quite  deserted  spot  we  found  three 
small  tanks,  and  a  watering  party  was  landed 
at  once. 

We  had  been  forwarned  that  in  the  first  war 
it  was  the  custom  of  the  Burmese,  fleeing 
before  an  enemy  and  deserting  their  villages,  to 


128  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

poison  their  tanks  with  the  juices  of  deadly- 
plants,  and  accordingly  I  was  ordered  to  test 
the  water,  and  our  thirsty  crew  to  wait  for  my 
report.  Now,  in  the  vagueness  of  the  best 
accounts  I  could  get,  the  variety  and  strange- 
ness of  the  poisonous  agents,  and  the  absence 
of  all  needful  appliances,  a  chemical  test  was 
an  impossibility.  Moreover,  we  had  but  one 
ration  of  water  left,  arid  the  men  had  been 
working  furiously  under  a  parching  heat.  But 
I  went  to  look  at  the  tanks,  and  when  I  found 
their  pure  and  innocent  bosoms  hiding  under  a 
green  veil  of  broad  lotos-leaves,  and  that  Cleo- 
patra among  flowers  drowsily  rocking  her 
cheek  on  their  ripples,  and  all  around  wearing 
an  aspect  of  blessedness  and  self-sufficing 
beauty,  I  thought  the  physiological  test  would 
do.  So  I  tossed  off  a  bumper  to  the  Daughter 
of  Egypt,  and  retired  to  my  state-room  to  make 
a  sonnet  about  her  before  I  died : 


As  often  as  I'm  with  thee  I  recall 
A  languid  lotos  nodding  in  a  pool, 
A  reverie  of  ripples,  where  a  cool, 

Still  tent  of  bamboo-shadows  curtains  all. 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      129 

Hard  by,  a  bulbul  joins  her  "  dying  fall" 
To  the  low  crooning  of  an  evening  breeze, 
Singing  of  slumber  and  soft  Indian  ease, 

To  fold  my  sleeper  in  faint,  sensuous  thrall : 
Couched  in  the  quiet  of  her  beauty,  fanned 

By  unseen  slaves  of  Queen  Mab's  retinue, 
Like  a  Sultana  leaning  on  her  hand, 

Whose  dreams  Haroun-al-Reschid's  realm  renew. 
Be  thou  my  lotos,  thine  her  gorgeous  gleams — 
Thou  maker  and  partaker  of  my  dreams  I 


Most  like  a  lotos  in  thy  languid  air — 
Most  like  a  lotos  in  thy  red  and  white — 
Not  in  the  arrogance  of  gems  bedight, 
But  in  the  queenliness  of  being  fair — 
Most  like  a  lotos,  that  thy  veins  prepare 
Some  subtle  potion  to  enthrall  the  sense 
Of  jaded  wayfarers,  and  lift  them  hence, 
To  bathe  in  oceans  of  empyrean  air  : 

The  dusty  Bedouin,  alighting  down 
From  his  fagged  camel  at  a  lotos  bath, 
Straightway  emparadised,  his  houri  hath, 

Forgets  the  desert  and  his  bandits  brown. 
I  lighted  from  my  camel  at  thy  door 
To  kiss  thee — must  I  dream  for  evermore  ? 


The  poonghee-house  had  evidently  been  a 
place  of  note.  It  had  only  one  apartment,  but 
that  was  of  imposing  dimensions,  and  furnished 
in  a  superior  manner  for  a  Burmese  building. 

There  were  cornices  elaborately  carved,  and 
6* 


130 


THE  GOLDEN  DAGON ; 


slender  spiral  pillars  stained  yellow — the  sacer 
dotal  color,  appropriated  by  the  priesthood  for 
their  sacred  vestments  and  the  adornment  of 
religious  houses,  and  strictly  tabooed  to  every 
other  class,  however  rich  or  powerful.  There 
were  no  retiring  rooms,  no  closets  or  curtained 
recesses ;  a  few  rude,  hard  benches,  without 
even  the  affectation  of  ornament  or  conveni- 
ence, the  only  couches. 

A  part  of  the  chamber  at  the  back  was 
divided  off  from  the  rest  by  a  yellow  curtain 
stretched  across ;  and  within,  on  an  elevated 
dais,  also  laid  with  yellow  cloth,  was  a  small 
cabinet,  profusely  carved  and  gilded,  wherein 
was  a  resplendent  image  of  the  god,  and  several 
sacred  volumes  of  great  age,  such  as  are  espe- 
cially the  charge  of  the  higher  poonghees  or 
rahaans — books  in  sacred  parable  and  tradition, 
in  astrology  and  the  black  art,  in  the  science 
of  charms  and  omens.  The  Captain's  butler,  a 
Hindostanee  who  had  lived  many  years  in  Bur-, 
mah,  and  was  familiar  with  the  written  and 
spoken  language,  made  prize  of  a  volume  of 
necromancy,  which  was  regarded  with  ortho- 
dox horror  by  a  Burmese  servant  who  accom- 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      131 

parried  him,  so  that  the  man  refused  to  touch 
it,  and  as  long  as  it  remained  in  the  boat  con- 
tinued to  mutter  prayers  and  pour  water  on 
his  head. 


THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

A  PRIZE  AND  A  PRISONER — PLENIPOTENTIARY  ABDOOLAH — 
HIS  CHARACTER  AND  COSTUME — STICKS  AND  CHICKENS — 
THE  GREAT  BATTLE  OF  PONTALONO. 

WE  soon  got  under  way  again.  As  we 
ascended,  the  river  widened,  and  the  channel 
followed  the  left  bank..  The  right  shore  was 
thickly  wooded,  the  trees  overhanging  the 
stream,  and  their  lower  branches  often  swing- 
ing in  the  water. 

Presently  a  small  covered  boat,  like  the 
family  boats  of  the  fishermen  we  had  seen  at 
every  village,  emerged  from  a  narrow  inlet 
in  the  right  bank  and  pulled  swiftly  up  the 
stream  in  the  slack  water,  close  under  the  trees 
and  in  their  favorable  shadow.  Our  natives 
were  sent  to  hail  it  from  the  bridge  with  shouts 
and  waving  of  white  cloths — to  call  it  along- 
side, that  we  might  overhaul  it  for  arms  and 
news. 

Four  stout  fellows  were  in  the  bow  laying 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRKAWADDI.      133 

out  all  their  strength  on  their  paddles,  and  a 
steersman  was  perched  on  the  high  stern.  We 
could  not  distinguish  their  faces — the  distance 
was  too  great ;  nor  could  we  decide  whether 
there  were  others  under  the  sampan.  They 
gave  no  heed  to  our  hailing,  but  pulled  straight 
on,  seeming  not  to  turn  their  eyes  or  thoughts 
in  our  direction.  A  gun,  already  charged  with 
grape,  was  fired  across  their  bow ;  the  shot 
threw  water  over  them  and  cut  up  the  bank  be- 
fore them.  At  once  they  dropped  their  pad- 
dles, and,  leaping  into  the  water,  swam  a  few 
strokes;  then  clambered  up  the  bank  and  fled 
into  the  woods.  With  the  impression  that 
there  might  still  be  others  concealed  under  the 
covering  of  mats,  a  few  muskets  were  dis- 
charged— at  first  with  blank  cartridges,  but 
afterward  with  balls,  thrown  tenderly  over  and 
around  the  boat — to  dislodge  them.  But  see- 
ing no  sign  of  life,  we  sent  one  of  our  cutters 
to  bring  the  canoe  away. 

As  the  men  came  alongside  towing  their 
prize,  their  faces  wore  an  almost  foolish  ex- 
pression, as  much  of  shame  as  of  pity.  There 
were  two  paddles,  some  fishing  poles,  and 


134  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

an  empty  rice  basket.  And  under  the  awning 
were  two  brass  bowls ;  an  earthen  pot,  in 
which  was  a  handful  of  cold  rice  ;  a  roll  of 
filthy  mats ;  a  filthier  garment  that  once  was 
red,  and  might  have  been  a  woman's ;  a  broken- 
hearted duck ;  a  desperate  cock  that  fought 
like  Horatius ;  the  bleeding  body  of  a  white- 
haired  man,  far  gone  beyond  his  three-score- 
and-ten,  whose  temple  had  been  pierced  by  a 
ball  the  devil  must  have  guided  ;  and  a  creature 
with  elf-locks  whiter  than  his,  whose  portion 
in  womankind  was  scarcely  distinguishable — 
partly  paralyzed  and  wholly  idiotic — the  for- 
lornest  wretchedness  I  ever  saw. 

We  took  her  on  board,  and  tried  to  make 
atonement  with  tenderness,  but  all  kindness 
was  lost  upon  her  wandering  wits.  So  we 
comforted  the  poor  creature  as  best  we  could, 
and  committed  her,  with  ample  provision  for 
her  present  support,  to  the  charge  of  some 
kind-hearted  people  at  the  first  village  we  came 
to. 

This  was  a  place  of  some  size,  called  Ponta- 
long.  Having  waited  there  a  day  without  see- 
ing or  hearing  from  any  citizen  of  credit  and 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      135 

renown,  beadle  or  train-band  captain,  we  sent 
Abdoolah  to  demand  an  explanation  of  such 
very  sophisticated  disrespect,  and  forthwith,  by 
dint  of  much  bluster,  a  profusion  of  Company's 
buttons,  some  gold  lace,  and  a  pair  of  ship's 
pistols — which  in  his  hands  were  not  so  harm- 
less as  they  looked — to  bring  off  the  head  man, 
willy-nilly,  with  the  necessary  apologies,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  poultry  and  plantains,  the 
fish  and  mangoes. 

On  such  an  embassy  Abdoolah  was  in  all  his 
glory.  His  barbarian  vanity  made  the  most 
of  the  buttons  and  the  lace,  wherewith  he 
glorified  himself  exceedingly,  and  filled  the  vul- 
g'ar  minds  of  Pontalong  with  special  wonder. 
Though  really  a  brave  man,  with  strong  sense  as 
well  as  cunning,  he  affected  an  extravagant  con- 
tempt for  the  Burmese,  and  invariably  played 
Thersites  before  them,  though  strongly  sus- 
pected of  mingling  their  blood  with  the  Malay 
element  in  his  veins.  He  had  a  great  gift  of 
rant,  and  heartily  rejoiced  in  an  opportunity, 
such  as  this,  to  display  his  talent  for  tearing 
passions  to  tatters.  It  was  his  pet  boast  that 
when  once  he  got  a  Burman  by  the  throat  he 


136  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

could  shake  anything  out  of  him,  from  red- 
legged  ducks  to  rubies.  And  yet  all  this 
seemed  no  more  than  an  amiable  contempt, 
indulged  in  principally  for  the  gratification  of 
his  own  vanity.  We  could  discover  in  his 
eccentricities  no  characteristic  cruelty.  I  have 
even  known  him  to  display,  on  occasions,  a 
highly  Christian  quality  of  kindness. 

Ever  since  that  black  day  in  the  calendar 
of  his  heroic  career,  when  his  gallant  navy, 
consisting  of  three  rickety  war-boats  and  the 
"  Old  Yaller,"  struck  all  its  ragged  flags  at 
once  to  overpowering  odds,  he  had  served  his 
gallant  foes,  with  the  accommodating  ardor  of 
a  Swiss,  in  the  complex  capacity  of  pilot,  inter- 
preter, bargain-maker,  and  brow-beater-gener- 
al ;  and  his  loyalty  was  as  admirable  as  his 
accomplishments. 

If,  in  holding  on  by  "  the  great  wheel  when 
it  went  up  hill,"  his  adherence  was  prompted 
by  the  pure  love  of  loot,  as  he  called  plunder, 
he  had  the  rare  candor  to  affect  no  more  sen- 
timental motive,  and  we  were  sure  of  his 
staunchness  .so  long  as  our  crop  of  loot  throve 
better  than  our  enemy's. 


OE,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      137 

Abdoolah's  costume  was  picturesque;  there 
is  many  a  less  striking  portrait  in  the  National 
Academy  of  Design.  On  his  back  he  sported  a 
pea-jacket,  originally  made  for  a  very  tall  man, 
with  very  long  arms  and  a  very  low  waist, 
and  remarkably  narrow  between  the  shoulders ; 
for  Abdoolah  had  cut  out  a  triangle  from  be- 
tween the  shoulder-blades  and  spliced  in  a 
broad  slice  of  Turkey-red — by  which  private 
bit  of  vanity  he  could  be  distinguished  with  a 
good  glass  at  the  distance  of  a  mile.  To  the 
modest  half-dozen  of  regulation  buttons  which, 
in  the  beginning,  adorned  this  elaborate  com- 
position, he  had  added  two  rows  extraordinary 
of  the  same,  with  the  lion  on  them,  if  any- 
thing, more  rampant  than  usual.  Somebody 
had  given  him  a  rusty  epaulette,  which,  with  a 
sharp  eye  to  symmetry,  he  had  hung  on  to  his 
collar  behind,  precisely  amidships. 

For  his  nether  man  he  affected  the  Burmese 
costume,  and  ventilated  his  thighs  in  a  breech- 
cloth  freely  adapted  to  the  dog-star  influences 
of  the  climate.  On  reaching  his  short,  sturdy 
legs  he  became  British  again,  and  those  brown 
pillars  of  the  Abdoolah  constitution  were  plant- 


138  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

ed — no  doubt,  for  the  sentiment — in  a  pair  of 
uncommon  Wellingtons. 

After  this  I  need  hardly  say  that  Abdoolah 
was  a  chunk  of  a  man,  short,  brawny,  and 
tough.  On  his  chest,  which,  between  knocks 
and  the  weather  was  actually  parti-colored, 
he  had  the  scars  of  three  old  gashes,  about 
which  he  told  a  different  story  every  time  you 
asked  him  how  he  got  them.  On  his  head — I 
had  well  nigh  forgotten  that — he  sported  a 
palm-leaf  hat  immensely  wide  in  the  brim, 
with  three  gold  bands  an  inch  or  two  apart, 
and  a  red  rag  sticking  out.  at  a  hole  he  had 
made  in  the  crown.  You  may  complete  his 
outfit  with  a  broad  black  belt,  clasped  by  a 
brass  buckle  as  broad  as  one's  hand,  wherein 
were  stuck  a  pair  of  ship's  pistols  and  a  dhar, 
more  familiar  to  his  hand  than  a  cutlass.  Then 
caricature  his  heels  with  a  pair  of  brass  spurs, 
into  which  he  had  been  fooled  by  a  sharp 
ensign,  who,  at  the  same  time,  duly  knighted 
him  Sir  Bardolph  Pistol  for  his  splendid  swag- 
ger— and  you  must  acknowledge  he  was  a 
likely  man  to  teach  the  City  Fathers  of  Ponta- 
long  good  manners. 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      139 

As  for  his  face,  it  was  a  hard  face,  a  scarred, 
and  battered,  and  defaced  face,  a  face  that  had 
been  much  used  and  much  abused,  that  "knew 
all  about  that,"  and  had  made  up  its  mind,  and 
would  stand  no  nonsense — such  a  face  as  you 
might  make  by  taking  the  beauties  of  feature 
and  expression  of  Rough  and  Ready,  Billy 
Bo\vlegs,  and  Sir  Charles  Napier,  and  mixing 
them  together. 

In  a  little  while  Abdoolah  returned,  sticking 
out  all  over,  and,  to  a  stranger,  seeming  not 
in  the  least  inclined  to  laugh.  Three  uncom- 
fortable-looking individuals,  of  whom  it  was 
hard  to  say  whether  they  were  most  dirty  or 
scared,  followed  after  the  jingling  of  his  spurs. 
These  pretended  to  be  bewildered  by  the  scene 
at  which  they  unwillingly  assisted,  and  begged 
to  be  told  why  the  fierce  General  in  the 
breech-cloth  and  buttons  had  commanded  their 
presence,  and  by  what  wonderful  dispensation 
such  pariahs  as  they  had  attracted  the  attention 
of  so  tremendous  a  Rajah. 

They  were  told  we  were  in  want  of  fire- 
wood and  fowls,  and  that  we  expected  Ponta- 


140  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

long  to  provide  both  without  delay.  They 
swore  they  could  not  see  what  they  had  to  do 
with  that;  that  they  were  three  of  the  most 
miserable  of  men,  who  barely  managed,  with 
infinite  pains,  to  keep  body  and  soul  together  ; 
that  for  their  own  funerals,  if  they  died  that 
hour,  they  had  neither  faggot  nor  pullet  where- 
with to  burn  their  bodies  or  pay  the  poonghee  ; 
that  the  rich  men  of  the  town  had  gone  off  with 
the  Dallah  Woon,  and  taken  all  the  sticks  and 
chickens  with  them.  They  implored  permis- 
sion to  return  to  the  miserable  obscurity  from 
which  they  had  been  dragged,  no  doubt  by 
mistake. 

But  the  real  ragamuffins  of  Pontalong — they 
who  had  never  been  seized  of  faggot  or  fowl  in 
their  lives  except  they  stole  it — protested  vo- 
ciferously, as  they  squatted  about  the  deck, 
that  Abdoolah's  prisoners  were,  in  spite  of 
their  pathos  and  dirt,  the  true  Gilpins  of  the 
place,  men  of  substance  as  well  as  renown — 
as,  indeed,  the  superior  quality  of  their  tattoo- 
ing betrayed — who  counted  their  poultry  by 
the  hundred,  and  their  fuel  by  the  cord.  So 
Abdoolah  stormed  exceedingly,  and  patted  his 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.       141 

dhar,  and  said  "  damn"  a  great  many  times — 
that  potent  monosyllable  before  which  all  ob- 
durate barbarians  soon  learn  to  bow — and  led 
his  pathetic  friends  to  a  thirty-two  pounder, 
and  demanded  the  sticks  and  chickens  in  its 
name.  Whereupon  his  victims  confessed  to 
their  hen-roosts  and  wood-piles,  and  consented 
to  fill  our  coops  and  bunkers  forthwith,  pro- 
vided we  would  assist  in  a  happy  plan  of  theirs 
for  the  saving  of  their  heads. 

They  made  it  plain  to  us,  that  if  they  con- 
tributed "aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy" — if 
they  yielded  to  a  forcible  forage  without  resist- 
ance— their  heads  would  fly  from  their  shoul- 
ders immediately  on  the  reappearance  of  their 
Myosugi  or  Mayor,  who  would  return  as  soon 
as  the  ship  left.  Therefore  they  besought  our 
aid  in  getting  up  a  mock  fight  that  night. 
They  would  bring  off'  the  wood  and  poultry  in 
the  afternoon,  as  much  as  we  wanted ;  and 
when  the  moon  rose  we  must  fire  into  the 
town  as  good-naturedly  as  possible,  and  they 
would  fire  back,  with  a  jinjal  and  some  mus- 
kets, in  a  perfectly  friendly  manner. 

This  funny  programme  was  duly  performed, 


142  .THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

with  brilliant  effect ;  and  the  best  of  all  was, 
they  borrowed  some  of  our  powder  for  the 
occasion.  Soon  after  dark — the  fire-wood  and 
fowls,  as  well  as  some  pigs,  and  fish,  and 
mangoes,  having  been  shipped  (and  liberally 
paid  for),  in  the  midst  of  much  merry-making 
with  the  pretty  mimas,  who  visited  us  con- 
fidingly, the  free  interchange  of  toasts  in  rum 
and  wine,  and  no  end  of  mutual  admiration — 
all  the  petroleum  of  Pontalong  was  brought 
into  requisition,  and  a  general  illumination 
opened  the  spectacle.  Then  a  mixed  herd  of 
citizens,  abundantly  greasy,  but  not  at  all  fat, 
headed  by  Abdoolah's  confidential  friends,  and 
having  in  their  midst  the  biggest  white  flag  the 
town  could  raise,  as  if,  still  timid,  to  signify 
that  their  friendly  sentiment  was  in  propor- 
tion to  it's  dimensions,  ran  down  to  the  bank, 
yelling,  and  firing  their  muskets  in  the  air. 

We  opened  the  attack  with  one  of  our  broad- 
side guns — of  course  with  blank  fire — and  im- 
mediately their  old  jinjal  uttered  its  small  roar. 
For  nearly  an  hour  the  set-to  was  smart  and 
noisy.  The  moon  was  full,  and  very  bright ; 
the  stars  were  out  in  unusual  strength ;  the 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IEHAWADDI.  143 

illumination  by  torches  and  bon-fires  was 
brilliant,  and  with  a  few  blue-lights  we  con- 
tributed largely  to  the  splendor  of  the  scene. 
Altogether,  our  grand  engagement  at  Ponta- 
long  was  an  uncommonly  showy  affair. 

When  we  had  burned  as  much  powder  as 
we  thought  it  necessary  to  expend  for  such  a 
moral  impression,  we  permitted  our  fire  to  be 
silenced,  and  retreated  precipitately,  according 
to  arrangement ;  whereat  fresh  bursts  of  shout- 
ing, dancing,  gun-firing,  and  general  glorifying 
on  shore. 

Let  us  hope  that  when  the  Myosugi  re- 
turned, he  treated  our  friends  to  the  thanks  of 
the  city  and  a  public  dinner,  made  heroes  of 
them  off-hand,  and  postponed  their  decapita- 
tion, which  was  pretty  sure  to  happen  one  day 
or  another. 


THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

OUR    MIRACLES-THE    FISHERMAN'S   BUTCHA THE    TRIBUTE    OF 

ROTTEN    EGGS BLOWING-UP    A    POONGHEE. 

MANY  a  poor  wounded  prisoner  whom  our 
surgeons  had  made  whole  again  before  he  was 
set  free,  had  returned  to  his  native  village  with 
a  wonder-moving  story  of  the  skill  and  kind- 
ness of  the  Inglee  doctors ;  so  the  fame  of  our 
miracles  had  spread  from  Rangoon  to  Prome. 

The  poonghees  practice  no  surgical  arts  ;  the 
halt  Burman  must  go  halt  forever,  and  the  poor 
bazaar  girl,  struck  by  a  shot  from  the  musket 
of  a  dacoit,  if  she  does  not  die  outright,  must 
carry  the  ball  till  her  time  comes.  Neverthe- 
less, they  believe  that  however  grave  the 
wound,  however  prostrating  the  shock,  if  by 
any  conjuring  they  can  get  at  the  ball,  so  as  to 
see  and  feel  it  and  toss  it  in  their  hands,  they 
will  surely  recover.  Thus,  it  was  our  gun-shot 
practice  which  most  astonished  them,  inspiring 
them  indeed  with  superstitious  faith,  and  a 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  145 

reverence  akin  to  worship — this  regard  pre- 
vailing among  them  all,  from  the  most  peace- 
able fisherman  to  the  most  murderous  dacoit. 

I  have  more  than  once  got  down  into  a  boat 
alongside  to  extract  one  of  our  own  balls  from 
the  body  of  a  tattooed  ruffian  who,  a  few 
minutes  b'efore,  was  war-dancing  and  hooting, 
and  flourishing  his  dhar  and  blazing  away  with 
his  musket  at  our  ship,  and  who  now,  on 
catching  the  lead  in  his  ugly  skin,  with  touch- 
ing confidence  came  begging  me  to  take  back 

• 

the  bullet.  True,  if  the  fellow  had  got  his  de- 
serts he  would  have  been  swung  up  at  the 
yard  for  a  scarecrow. .  But  what  could  we  do? 
There  was  no  dealing  "judgmatically,"  as  my 
countrymen  say,  with  such  an  appeal  to  the 
hospitalities  :  you  lost  sight  of  the  wholesale 
thief  and  kidnapper  and  Thug,  and  saw  in  the 
fellow  only  a  helpless,  beseeching  animal,  crip- 
pled and  moaning,  and  showing  us  its  wound. 

At  Yangeenchinyah  I  had  a  dozen  patients. 
A  fisherman  and  his  wife  brought  off  their 
butcha,  a  beautiful  child,  who,  in  playing  with 
another  baby  Burman,  had  fallen  down  the 
high  bank  and  dislocated  his  thighi  The  in* 


THE  GOLDEN  DAGON ; 

jury  was  recent,  and  the  reduction  easy.  As 
the  deck  happened  to  be  in  great  confusion  at 
the  time,  I  had  my  patient  removed  to  the 
"  bridge"  between  the  paddle-boxes,  and  operated 
there.  Young  as  the  boy  was,  he  displayed 
much  of  the  savage's  temper  under  physical 
suffering,  and  bit  and  scratched  rather  than 
cried.  His  mother  remained  on  the  deck  below 
in  an  agony  of  impatience,  but  with  no  doubt 
or  fear.  Although  we  urged  her  repeatedly  to 
come  up  to  her  child,  she  resolutely  refused — 
"  it  was  not  for  her  to  stand  above  the  heads 
of  all  the  Inglee  Rajahs." 

Another  was  a  poor  chatta-maker,  who  was 
quite  blind  with  ulcerated  corneas.  His  wife 
paddled  him  off  in  a  little  canoe,  and  I  found 
them  squatting  together  under  the  rail,  close 
by  the  gangway,  waiting  to  be  noticed.  With 
perfect  faith  and  patience  and  tenderness,  she 
sat  holding  his  hand  between  her  own ;  or  with 
child-like  simplicity  manifesting  her  solicitude, 
and  her  anxiety  to  get  me  interested  in  the 
case,  she  rattled  away  without  a  pause,  and 
with  an  infinite  variety  of  gestures,  never  per- 
ceiving, never  understanding*  that  her  pretty 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN   THE    IRRAWADDI.  147 

prayer  was  all  lost  on  me.  But  I  did  my  best 
for  the  sufferer  then,  and  left  careful  instruc- 
tions with  the  most  intelligent  of  his  neighbors, 
as  well  as  a  supply  of  medicines,  for  his  future 
treatment. 

Five  weeks  after  that,  being  in  Yangeen- 
chinyah  again,  I  was  rewarded  by  finding  him 
wonderfully  improved:  the  sight  of  one  eye 
was  quite  restored,  and  the  other  was  recover- 
ing rapidly.  Poor  fellow!  his  gratitude  was 
not  very  demonstrative ;  but  his  delighted  wife 
embraced  and  kissed  my  feet,  and  laughed  and 
cried  together,  and  presently,  running  off  in 
high  excitement,  returned — with  a  basket  of 
rotten  eggs.  She  had  saved  them  for  me  ever 
since  the  morning  he  could  first  see  the  light. 
Good  creature!  to  her  they  were  not  rotten, 
they  were  only  saved — she  perceived  them  with 
the  nose* of  her  heart.  I  told  her  they  were 
very  nice,  and  I  hope  I  thought  they  were. 

At  Yangeenchinyah  we  witnessed  the  obse- 
quies of  a  poonghee,  not  the  least  curious  of  Bur- 
mese ceremonies.  The  defunct  had  been 
among  the  most  reverend  of  the  yellow  cloth 
in  Pegu,  and  his  funeral  called  out  the  town  in 


148  THE   GOLDEN    DAGON  ; 

extraordinary  preparations.  It  had  been  just 
fifteen  months  since  he  died,  and  all  that  time 
the  material  part  of  him  had  been  lying  em- 
balmed in  a  carved,  painted  and  gilded  coffin, 
under  three  white  umbrellas,  on  a  high  staging 
hung  with  yellow  paper,  in  the  principal  poon- 
ghee-house. 

The  process  of  embalming  him  was  very 
Egyptian :  First  of  all  they  steeped  him  in 
honey,  and  left  him  to  soak  for  some  weeks ; 
next,  they  took  out  his  "  insides,"  and  filled 
up  the  hole  with  all  manner  of  spices ;  then 
they  encased  him  in  a  sheathing  of  wax  to 
make  him  air-tight,  and  over  that  they  payed 
on  a  layer  of  lac,  and  ever  that  again  a  coat  of 
gold-leaf;  and  when  they  had  made  him  all 
splendid  and  shining,  they  left  him  on  his 
staging,  under  his  umbrellas,  to  dry.  Finally, 
by  his  side,  they  built  a  kneeling  elephant  of 
thin  wood,  paper,  and  glue,  and  fastened  the 
coffin  on  its  back. 

And  after  many  months,  when  the  stars,  and 
the  cards,  and  the  mango  seeds,  and  the  eyes 
of  the  yellow  owl,  had  appointed  a  lucky  day, 
they  called  all  the  people  from  round  about  to 


OR,    UP    AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  149 

see  him  start  far  Nieban.  The  people  came, 
and  brought  gongs,  drums,  horns,  and  flowers ; 
there  were  singing  boys  and  dancing  maidens 
with  fireworks — every  street  its  own  fireworks. 
And  rockets,  wheels,  and  fountains  were  stuck 
thickly  on  the  sides  and  backs  of  elephants, 
oxen,  "horses,  and  bears,  of  wood,  paper,  and 
glue. 

Then  they  laid  the  golden  mummy  in  its 
golden  coffin,  and  hoisted  it,  elephant  and  all, 
atop  of  the  staging  under  the  white  umbrellas ; 
and  they  mounted  the  whole  upon  wheels, 
and  dragged  it  forth  outside  the  town,  to  an 
open  place  they  had  cleared  in  the  jungle  with 
fire,  banging  their  gongs  the  while,  beating 
their  drums,  blowing  their  horns,  waving  their 
flags — the  priests  howling,  and  the  boys  sing- 
ing, and  the  demi-nude  girls  dancing,  the 
young  men  flourishing  their  paddles  and  dhars, 
and  the  old  women  scolding  for  alms. 

All  the  next  day  they  were  letting  off  the 
fireworks, — street  vieing  with  street  in  the  pro- 
fusion, brilliancy,  and  fantastic  variety  of  its 
pyrotechnics ;  for  much  fizzing  and  whizzing  and 
spitting  and  cracking  was  thought  pleasing  to 


150  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

the  Nats  and  good  for  the  soul  of  Poonghee.  On 
the  third  day,  which  was  the  last,  all  the  people 
were  distributed  in  two  equal  parties,  and  many 
ropes,  both  long  and  strong,  being  attached  to 
opposite  sides  of  the  car,  they  pulled  against 
each  other  for  the  possession  of  Poonghee. 

Drumming,  gonging,  tooting,  singing,  jump- 
ing, howling,  laughing,  scolding,  waving  flags 
and  flourishing  dhars,  ihey  tugged  and  swayed 
and  tugged,  then  fell  and  were  dragged  awhile, 
then  rose  again  and  tugged,  then  rested  and 
panted,  and  then  tugged  again.  And  all  this 
time  recruits  from  other  villages  were  strag- 
gling in  to  swell  the  ranks  of  this  side  or  of  that, 
and  to  make  the  strain  and  struggle  wilder. 

At  last  some  of  the  ropes  on  one  side  gave 
way  with  a  loud  report.  A  thousand  screaming 
people  at  once  went  down  on  their  backs,  roll- 
ing over  each  other,  spluttering  and  wrig- 
gling to  disengage  themselves  ;  and  the  other 
side,  with  a  sky-splitting  shout  of  victory,  ran 
off  with  Poonghee,  dragging,  on  their  feet  or 
their  backs  or  their  bellies,  the  few  of  the  dis- 
comfited party  who  still  held  on  by  the  ropes 
that  were  left. 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDL  151 

Then,  coffin,  staging,  elephant  and  all,  they 
carried  Poonghee  and  set  him  down  inside 
a  bamboo  house,  erected  for  the  occasion,  and 
hung  around  with  white  and  yellow  flags ; 
and  they  dashed  the  walls  with  petroleum,  and 
laid  combustible  matter  all  about  the  room, 
on  the  staging  and  in  the  coffin.  Then  they 
stood  off  and  fired  rockets  at  the  whole ;  till 
presently  roaring  flames  burst  forth,  Poonghee 
went  up  to  Nieban  in  the  blaze,  and  everybody 
else  went  home. 


162  THE  GOLDEN  DAGON; 


CHAPTEE   XVIII. 

THE   BOODH.  » 

SANGERMANO  describes  Nieban  as  a  state  of 
perpetual  ecstacy,  "wherein  those  who  attain 
it  are  not  only  free  from  the  pains  and  troubles 
of  this  life — from  death,  illness,  and  qld  age — 
but  are  abstracted  from  all  sensation  ;  they 
have  no  longer  a  thought  or  a  desire." 

By  taking  refuge  only  with  the  Boodh  ; 
by  approaching  him  with  pleasing  offerings ; 
by  glorifying  him  with  high  hymns  and  elo- 
quent praises;  by  keeping  your  eyes  fixed  for- 
ever on  the  ecstatic,  imperturbed  abstraction  of 
his  gaze  ;  by  striving  always  and  without  faint- 
ing for  the  highest ;  by  meditating  and  repeat- 
ing eternally  the  three  mystic  words,  ANEIZZ'A, 
DOECHA,  ANATTA  ;  you  may  reach  this  Nieban 
through  a  milky  way  of  worlds. 

The  years  it  will  take  you  to  make  the  jour- 
ney may  be  as  few  as  the  days  you  have  lived 
— may  be  as  many  as  the  drops  of  rain  that  fall 


OR,    UP  AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  153 

over  all  the  world  in  seven  seasons.  You  are 
climbing  a  mountain  of  round,  rolling  stones, 
and  on  many  a  smooth  sin  your  foot  may  slip 
and  cast  you  to  the  bottom.  As  often  as  you 
fall  you  must  be  born  again,  as  often  as  you 
rise ;  and  your  new  siate  among  animate  things 
will  be  as  the  depth  of  your  fall,  as  the  height 
of  your  exaltation.  From  the  power  and  be- 
atitude of  a  prince  among  the  Nats,  you  may 
descend  to  the  crawling  nuisance  of  a  louse. 
From  out  the  fiery,  howling  centre  of  Silapafcavi, 
you  may  rise  to  the  infinite  hush  and  moonlight 
of  Nieban — but  step  by  step,  and  every  step  a 
new  birth ;  through  Ammutzi,  the  place  of 
beasts  and  creeping  things;  through  Preitta, 
the  place  of  sorrow ;  and  Assuriche,  the  place 
of  anger,  heart-burnings,  and  blows ;  and  Niria, 
the  place  of  extreme  fire  and  extreme  cold,  with 
Silapatavi  at  the  heart  of  it. 

Guadma  had  lived  in  four  hundred  millions 
of  worlds  before  he  was  born  into  this.  Imme- 
diately on  emerging  from  the  womb  of  the 
Maha-Mai,  he  said:  "Now  am  I  born  for  the 
last  tune — next  comes  Nieban!" 

Then  the  Boodh  that  had  sat  on  the  throne  of 

7* 


154  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON  ; 

trance  five  thousand  years  closed  his  eyes  and 
dissolved,  and  the  wishless  calm  became  Guad- 
ma's,  and  Guadma  became  the  fourth  Boodh — 
the  Incomparable;  the  Supreme;  Teacher  of 
the  Three  Worlds,  of  Gods,  Men,  and  Devils; 
the  World's  Compassionating,  Divine  Friend ; 
Lord  and  Comforter  of  Sanka  (Ceylon);  the 
Incomprehensible ;  Lord  of  the  Divine  Sages ; 
Deity  of  the  Felicitous  Advent ;  Illuminator  of 
the  World ;  Maker  of  Light ;  Prince  of  Healers ; 
Supreme  Protector,  who  has  made  vacant  the 
mansions  of  distress ;  Scholar,  Sage,  whose  un- 
derstanding is  pure  and  brilliant ;  who  is  cele- 
brated in  the  three  worlds;  who  is  profound 
in  the  three  kinds  of  science ;  who  hath  the 
thirty-two  characteristic  signs  complete ;  who 
hath  memory  of  all  things,  with  discernments 
and  fore-knowledge ;  who,  with  tranquil  mind, 
cleareth  the  troubled  times — Muni!  whose 
heart  is  at  rest,  who  hath  suffered  much,  who 
resteth  ! 

For  my  part,  I  am  satisfied  to  believe  that 
the  devout  Boodhist,  who,  maintaining  the 
eternally  uninterrupted  concatenation,  has  at- 
tained to  the  supreme  pres.en.ce — and  the  good 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRKAWADDI.  155 

and  faithful  Christian  servant  who,  by  the 
merit  of  faith  and  works,  hath  entered  into  the 
joy  of  his  Lord,  kneeling,  hand-in-hand,  at  the 
foot  of  the  throne,  will  see  in  Him  who  sitteth 
on  the  right  hand,  this,  his  Christ,  and  that,  his 
Guadma. 

A  devoted  missionary,  Mr.  Malcolm,  said  of 
Boodhism  :  "In  almost  eveiy  respect  it  seems 
to  be  the  best  religion  which  man  has  ever 
invented."  And  when,  at  Doonoobyoo,  I  asked 
a  poonghee  :  "  What  is  Boodh?"  he  answered  : 
*'  Boodh  is  you,  and  I,  and  all  men  ;  when  you 
are  I,  and  I  am  you,  and  both  are  at  rest,  that 
is  Boodh."  I  think  I  understood  him. 


156  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 


CHAPTEE    XIX. 

DOONOOBYOO THE     GRATE     OF    THE    MAHA    BANDOOLA — HIS 

TALIPOT   TREE — HIS    PLUTARCH — THE   STORY   OF   ZINGUZA. 

AT  Doonoobyoo,  whither  we  were  now  go- 
ing, the  Maha  Bandoola,  Burmah's  adored  hero, 
the  man  of  flying  marches — who,  after  he  had 
defeated  Captain  Noton  at  Ramos  in  1824,  swore 
he  would  march  on  and  take  London,  swore 
he  would  swoop  down  on  Calcutta  and  bring 
away  the  Governor-General  in  fetters  to  Ava, 
and  was  actually  provided  by  the  Golden  Foot 
with  chains  of  gold  for  that  purpose — at  Doo- 
noobyoo, where,  in  great  force,  and  with  a 
body-guard  of  "Invulnerables,"  he  had  made  a 
stand,  in  1825,  to  oppose  Sir  Archibald  Camp- 
bell on  his  way  to  Prome,  and  drive  him  back 
to  Rangoon,  the  illustrious  Bandoola  was  killed 
by  a  shell,  dying  as  a  great  captain  should. 

In  his  answer  to  General  Willoughby  Cot- 
ton's summons  to  surrender,  he  had  written  his 
own  epitaph  in  one  of  the  most  fameworthy  of 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  157 

military  laconics :  "  If  you  wish  to  see  our 
pagodas,  come  as  friends  and  I  will  show  them 
to  you  ;  if  you  come  as  enemies — LAND  !" 

But  now  Doonoobyoo  was  a  half-deserted 
village,  an  innocent  hamlet,  whither,  seem- 
ingly, the  outcry  of  war  and  the  smoke  of  the 
burning  had  never  come.  Not  a  stockade,  not 
a  trench,  not  a  jinjal,  not  a  dhar!  neither  gold 
umbrella  nor  red  flag  was  there.  When  we 
asked  "the  oldest  inhabitant,"  who  hobbled 
out  to  offer  us  the  hospitalities  of  the  city, 
and  show  us  the  public  buildings,  why  the 
chief  of  the  district  had  not  erected  stockades 
and  thrown  a  brave  army  into  the  place,  to 
fight  us  for  the  honor  of  the  Great  Bandoola, 
he  said:  "What  is  there  here  to  fight  for? — 
a  poorighee-house,  a  grave,  and  a  recollection." 
Historic  Doonoobyoo  could  take  care  of  itself. 

And  in  the  midst  of  the  old  lines  which 
Bandoola  himself  had  made,  between  ditches 
green  and  slimy  with  stagnant  water,  or  quite 
choked  with  rubbish  from  the  ruined  wall,  he 
showed  us  a  solitary  mound  of  broken  bricks, 
a  disordered  pile,  with  sprouting  weeds  and 
grass,  its  base  supported  by  three  inverted  jin- 


158  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

jals,  and  its  top  crowned  with  an  old  British 
shell — a  more  classic  monument  for  a  soldier 
than  many  an  elaborate  design  contributed  by 
the  pencil  of  refined  art  to  the  Pere-la-Chaises 
of  the  world. 

Above  it  a  talipot-tree,  a  tall,  straight,  slen- 
der shaft,  nodded  high  in  air  its  gracefully- 
drooping  plume.  Bandoola  had  planted  it 
with  his  own  hand,  even  with  Sir  Archibald's 
bugle-call  in  his  ears ;  and  he  promised  that,  if 
he  fell  and  died  there,  as  he  surely  would  if 
the  Nats  forsook  him  in  his  hour,  he  would 
come  as  bird  or  serpent,  when  the  fire 
war-boats  were  at  Rangoon,  to  watch  in  its 
branches  for  their  smoke,  far  down  through  all 
the  windings  of  the  golden-fountained  Irra- 
waddi ;  and  no  harm  from  Inglee  Rajahs,  nor 
any  foreign  foe,  should  come  to  his  beloved 
Doonoobyoo,  so  long  as  the  plume  of  that  tali- 
pot nodded  in  the  sun. 

The  old  man  pointed  to  its  crown  and  smiled. 
Nor  was  his  faith  shaken,  if  he  lived  till  Febru- 
ary, 1853,  to  see  Captain  Loch's  force  caught 
in  ambuscade  and  all  but  cut  to  pieces  by  Nya- 
Myat-Toon,  the  jungle  chief  of  Doonoobyoo. 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      159 

As  a  crowning  mark  of  his  distinguished  con- 
sideration, our  venerable  friend  brought  from 
some  inner  temple  of  the  poonghee-house,  and 
reverently  opened  before  us,  a  curious  volume 
which  he  said  had  once  been  the  favorite  read- 
ing of  Bandoola. 

About  a  hundred  leaves  of  the  smooth  white 
palmyra,  written  upon  on  both  sides,  in  the 
round  Burmese  character,  with  a  sharp-cutting 
stylus,  and  gilded  on  the  margins,  were  held 
evenly  and  firmly  together  between  thick 
covers  of  sandal-wood,  lacquered  and  gilded. 
The  surface  formed  by  the  edges  of  these 
leaves  when  the  volume  was  closed  was  paint- 
ed a  flaring  red,  in  the  style  of  some  old 
English  books,  and  further  embellished  with 
designs  in  black,  representing  military  objects, 
such  as  flags,  dhars,  lances,  and  helmets.  A 
hole  at  either  end  completely  perforated  the 
volume,  through  which  yellow  cords  of  silk 
were  passed,  and  held  together  by  means  of  a 
golden  tag  and  button  a  few  inches  from  the 
cover,  so  as  to  allow  the  leaves  to  be  turned 
without  being  separated. 

The  old  man  explained  to  us,  through  the 


160  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

captain's  servant,  Jacob,  a  most  fluent  inter- 
preter— and,  for  a  Bengalee,  a  person  of  rare 
intelligence — that  the  book  was  a  collection 
of  true  stories  in  Burmese  history,  of  heroes, 
famous  generals  and  illustrious  favorites,  either 
legitimately  of  the  blood  royal,  or  adopted 
and  cherished  in  the  confidence  of  the  Golden 
Foot. 

We  asked  for  a  taste  of  this  Burman  Plu- 
tarch's quality.  So,  sitting  together  on  Ban- 
doola's  grave  under  the  talipot — we  choosing 
the  seat  for  the  sentiment,  and  the  venerable 
spokesman  for  Doonoobyoo,  far  from  objecting, 
seeming  rather  to  be  flattered  by  the  choice — 
the  old  man  read  to  .us,  Jacob  interpreting 
with  astonishing  closeness  and  facility, 

THE    STORY    OF    ZINGUZA. 

Shembuan  Prah,  the  Unlucky,  had  made 
his  last  blunder  and  died  just  when  he  was 
needed  most;  so  his  scapegrace  son,  Zinguza, 
the  Scamp,  was  lord  of  the  Golden  Foot,  and 
Boodh-descended  mounter  of  the  White  Ele- 
phant. 

At  once  he  turned  the  palace  of  a  thousand 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      161 

kings  into  a  place  of  orgies,  and  made  wild  riot 
and  obscene  feasts,  boisterous  and  unbounded, 
in  the  high  seat  of  Alompra,  the  Vowed  to 
Budd'ha.  To  crafty  and  unscrupulous  minis- 
ters, and  servile,  treacherous  courtiers,  he  left 
the  administration  of  the  laws,  the  execution 
of  wholesome  measures  of  reform,  the  collec- 
tion of  the  revenues,  the  disbursement  of  the 
public  moneys,  the  dispensation  of  justice,  the 
rewarding  of  such  as  had  deserved  well  of  the 
State,  the  punishment  of  offenders. 

To  the  evil-minded  and  cunning  Mentara- 
gyee,  to  the  ambitious  Momien,  to  the  foolish 
Paongoza,  be  said :  "  Make  war  or  peace,  build 
or  burn,  spend  or  gather,  kill  or  spare;  only 
leave  me  to  my  mimas  (women)  and  my 
'strangers'  drink;'  my  players,  and  my  gam- 
bling, and  my  chess ;  my  hunting  and  fishing ; 
my  processions  and  my  fireworks ;  my  ele- 
phant-fights ;  my  fencers  and  racers  and  wrest- 
lers ;  my  dancers  and  puppets ;  my  music,  and 
my  mimas,  and  my  strangers'  drink.  Rule 
you,  and  I  will  make  merry." 

And  so  he  did,  and  all  Ava  murmured ; 
while  Pegu,  greatly  rejoicing,  began  to  sharpen 


162  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

her  dhar  and  think  on  her  old  king,  Beinga- 
Della,  that  was  murdered. 

Then  Momien,  that  was  cousin  to  the  king, 
said  :  "  My  right  is  better  than  his.  It  is  I 
who  should  have  the  Golden  Foot ;  it  is  I  who 
should  sit  in  the  howdah  of  the  White  Ele- 
phant, that  feasteth  from  golden  plate  and 
sleepeth  on  cloth  of  gold." 

And  the  evil-minded,  crafty  Mentaragyee 
said  :  "  Aye — only  wait." 

And  presently  Zinguza  called  together  his 
hunters  and  fishers,  his  wrestlers  and  fencers 
and  racers,  his  players  and  his  puppets,  and 
his  musicians — them  with  the  seven-stringed 
harps,  and  them  with  the  tzeings  of  seven 
drums,  and  them  with  the  kyay-wyngs  of 
seven  gongs,  and  them  with  the  cymbals  and 
bells  and  horns — and  his  mimas,  the  fairest 
and  warmest;  with  store  of  rare  viands  and 
betel  and  pipes,  and  dream-drug  from  over 
the  China  border,  and  strangers'  drink  from 
the  Inglee  Rajahs  at  Bassein.  And  they 
sailed  in  golden  barges  between  the  bamboo 
shadows  to  Keoptaloum,  the  lotos-floored, 
twelve  leagues  away,  to  abide  many  days, 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  163 

debauched,  panting,  drunken-eyed,  incestuous, 
stupefied. 

Then  Momien,  the  Ambitious,  crept  at  night 
to  the  chamber  of  the  king,  that  was  all  disor- 
dered, as  when  last  he  romped  there  in  his 
royal  robes  and  tumbled  among  his  women, 
making  tipsy  sport  with  the  sceptre  and  the 
crown.  And  Momien  stole  away  the  golden- 
velvet  robe  and  hid  it  in  a  ditch  without  the 
gates,  and  went  and  called  Mentaragyee^,  the 
Crafty.  And  they  two  made  a  rendezvous  and 
gathered  there  their  friends,  and  all  the  con- 
spirators that  were  with  them,  beside  a  great 
force  of  dacoits,  won  by  the  promise  of  plunder. 

So,  when  the  night  was  very  dark,  Momien 
clad  himself  in  the  golden-velvet  robe,  and 
came  to  the  gate  and  knocked,  and  bade  the 
guards  open  in  the  name  of  the  king.  And  no 
sooner  were  the  gates  flung  open,  than  Mo- 
mien and  Mentaragyee,  and  all  their  wicked, 
traitorous  crew,  rushed  in  and  took  the  city 
and  the  palace,  slaying  many,  many  people 
even  while  they  slept ;  and  they  sent  off  swift 
runners  and  cunning  swordsmen  to  take  Zin- 
guza,  and  slay  him  also. 


164  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

But  the  evil  tidings  had  reached  Zinguza  by 
some  who,  flying  that  dreadful  night,  had  made 
their  way  straight  to  him  ;  and  he  broke  away 
from  his  women,  and  fled  across  the  river  to 
Chagaing,  over  against  Ava.  Immediately, 
Momien  and  the  evil-minded  Mentaragyee  be- 
sieged him  there,  so  that  his  courage  failed 
him,  and  he  would  fain  have  escaped  to  Cassay, 
to  seek  asylum  with  the  Munnipoora  Rajah. 
But  when  his  mother — the  aged  widow  of 
Shembuan  Prah,  the  Unlucky,  whom  he  had 
left  in  his  palace  at  Ava,  and'who  now,  having 
fallen  into  the  bloody  hands  of  Mentaragyee,  the 
Evil-minded,  must  die — heard  that  Zinguza 
would  save  his  life  by  such  a  slave's  flight,  she 
found  means  of  sending  to  him  a  secret  messen- 
ger, to  say :  "  My  son,  thy  blood  is  black  and 
bad,  and  thy  life  hath  been  a  shame  and  a  ruin. 
Better  die  a  king  in  the  precincts  of  thine  own 
royal  palace,  even  though  thou  fall  by  the  dhar 
of  a  Peguan  dog,  than  live  a  beggar  and  a 
coward  at  the  court  of  a  ragged  dacoit." 

When  Zinguza  heard  the  words  of  his  mother, 
the  blood  of  Alompra  was  stirred  within  his 
veins.  He  clad  himself  in  the  garb  of  a  simple 


OB,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      165 

gentleman,  and,  followed  only  by  a  single 
slave,  got  into  a  small  fishing-boat  and  pushed 
straight  across  to  Ava.  Never  staying  nor 
turning  back,  he  strode  proudly  to  the  great 
gate  and  demanded  admittance ;  and  when  the 
guards  challenged  him  and  bade  him  give  his 
name  and  errand,  he  answered  :  "Zinguza  nam- 
dogy-yeng  Prah" — "it  is  Zinguza,  your  lawful 
lord!" 

Then  the  guards,  astonished,  bewildered, 
flung  open  the  great  gate,  and  Zinguza  with 
his  slave  passed  in,  looking  neither  to  the  right 
hand  nor  the  left,  nor  accosting  any  man,  but 
silently  marching  up  the  paved  way,  in  the 
middle  of  it,  straight  to  the  palace ;  and  all  the 
people  fell  back  before  the  royal  outlaw,  and 
many  there  were  that  made,  yet  did  not  make, 
salaam.  And  so  he  reached  the  lower  wicket 
of  the  palace,  but  his  name  had  gone  before 
him.  and  Mentaragyee,  the  Evil-minded,  stopped 
the  way. 

And  Zinguza  cried:  "Thief!  let  me  pass; 
I  come  to  take  mine  own,  and  rule  it  too,  at 
last!"  Mentaragyee  answered  not  a  word,  but 
he  snatched  a  dhar  from  the  hand  of  au  officer, 


166  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

and  with  a  quick,  cruel  stroke  cut  Zinguza 
across  the  bowels,  so  that  he  fell  down  there 
and  died. 

And  all  the  people  said  the  Scamp  was  a  god 
after  all. 


Of  such  traditions  came  the  inspirations  and 
aspirations  of  the  Maha  Bandoola.  The  old 
man  smiled  complacently  at  the  end  of  his 
story,  as  much  as  to  say,  "  So  Burmah,  also, 
hath  her  heroes  and  her  history,  you  perceive." 
So  too,  thought  I,  has  the  Choctaw  Nation ; 
but  neither  the  breech-cloth  nor  the  scalp-lock, 
neither  the  tattoo  nor  the  war-paint,  neither 
the  dhar  nor  the  tomahawk,  has  left  marks 
in  mounds  or  caverns  which  the  slate-pencil 
of  a  Yankee  schoolmaster  shall  not  scratch 
out. 

At  Moulmein  a  "Mission  Press"  prints  the 
New  Testament  in  Burmese ;  at  Rangoon  a 
Baptist  Eliot  teaches  the  Christian  catechism 
to  the  Karens,  in  a  tongue  for  which  he  helped 
to  invent  a  written  character  and  an  alphabet. 
I  think  the  materials  for  the  History  of  Burmah 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDL      167 

are  to  be  found  in  the  plans  of  the  American 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions — 
that  Christ  will  be  the  hero  there  before  Ban- 
doola  is  forgotten.  From  Mr.  Vinton's  school- 
house  door  the  Golden  Dagon  looks  shaky. 


168  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 


CHAPTER    XX. 

SHELLING   THE  WOONS. 

TWENTY  miles  above  Doonoobyoo,  at  a  spot 
where  the  narrow,  shaded  pass  of  the  river  ab- 
ruptly expanded  into  a  wide  range  of  flat  pad- 
dy fields,  bounded  on  every  side  by  woods,  our 
little  steamer  suddenly  ceased  her  busy  pad- 
dling and  stood  still,  as  though  astonished. 

A  remote,  multitudinous  murmur,  with  now 
and  then  reverberations  and  clangor,  as  of  dis- 
tant thunder,  came  over  the  plain  to  us  from 
the  east,  and  with  the  glass  we  could  see  a 
moving  darkness,  like  the  shadow  of  a  cloud, 
on  the  young  rice — that  was  all.  Then  we 
crept  up  nearer,  making  no  smoke,  and  pray- 
ing that  the  noise  of  our  paddles  might  not 
betray  us  yet ;  and  presently  we  discovered  a 
great  flashing  and  sparkling  over  all  the  moving 
shadow,  and  the  far-away  thunder  acquired  a 
brazen  quality,  and  the  multitudinous  murmur 
was  as  of  many  men. 

Nearer  and  nearer,  plainer  and  plainer,  and 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      169 

— By  Jove,  it  was ! — an  army  with  elephants, 
horsemen  and  wagons,  banners  and  gongs  and 
cymbals,  brazen  helmets,  gold  umbrellas,  flash- 
ing spears ! 

The  Woons  of  Dallah,  Martaban,  and  Inge- 
boo,  with  four  thousand  men,  and  gathering  as 
they  went,  were  on  their  way  down  from 
Prome  to  Rangoon.  Leading  the  array,  three 
stately  elephants  marched,  bearing  the  Woons 
in  gilded  howdahs  under  gold  umbrellas ;  and 
on  the  painted  cloth,  behind  each  howdah, 
knelt  two  body-servants,  one  with  the  betel- 
box  and  drinking-cup,  another  with  the  fan. 
Next  came  five  lesser  elephants,  bearing  bag- 
gage and  arms,  and  more  servants  ;  and  behind 
these,  twelve  stately  beasts  again,  ridden  by  the 
sons  and  nephews  of  the  Woons,  with  other 
young  noblemen  and  officers. 

After  the  elephants  came  horsemen — or 
rather  say  ponymen — to  the  number  of  three  or 
four  hundred ;  tall  fellows,  without  stirrups, 
their  long,  brown  legs  dangling  near  the 
ground,  gilded  helmets  on  their  heads,  green 
jackets,  red  breech-cloths.  Each  had  a  long 

dhar  suspended  from  his  neck  by  a  red  cord,  a 

8 


170  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON  ; 

slender  lance  of  reed  in  his  right  hand,  an  ill- 
conditioned  musket  across  his  back. 

Then  followed  the  bangers  of  gongs  and  cym- 
bals, and  the  blowers  of  horns,  and  the  war- 
dancers,  and  boasters,  and  "attitude-strikers," 
and  strong  men. 

After  these  came  the  general  camp,  the  sut- 
lers, pioneers  and  all — the  common  herd  of  va- 
gabonds and  mischief-making  scoundrels.  The 
oxen  with  wagons,  and  the  hostages,  brought 
up  the  rear. 

Drawn  out  in  imposing  array,  with  martial 
flourish  and  hubbub,  they  slowly  swept  across 
the  plain — the  feet  of  the  elephants,  the  legs  of 
men  and  horses,  and  the  low  wooden  wheels  of 
the  carts,  half  hidden  in  the  waving  paddy.  I 
think  their  first  intimation  of  our  proximity 
was  the  boom  of  our  bull-ring  guns — which  at 
first  were  not  charged  for  so  long  a  range — and 
the  bursting  of  two  shells  in  quick  succession 
in  the  rice  on  their  right,  where  they  had  fallen 
short.  Before  they  could  recover  from  the  su- 
perstitious consternation  into  which  our  fiery 
apparition  and  the  stroke  of  those  thunder-bolts 
had  thrown  them,  we  were  in  among  them  with 


OK,    UP    AND   DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  171 

our  biggest  bombs — into  their  very  midst,  down 
upon  the  backs  of-  the  elephants,  between  the 
legs  of  the  horses  and  oxen,  and  right  among 
the  leaping,  falling,  flying,  yelling  herd  of 
thieves  and  scamps. 

The  act  was  soon  played  out — the  grand 
finale  began  with  the  first  shot.  The  scream 
of  the  steam-whistle,  joined  to  the  crash  of  the 
guns,  made  the  panic  and  the  ruin  complete. 
Five  or  six  elephants  toppled  and  descended 
with  reverberations,  while  a  dozen  umbrellas, 
gold  and  white,  with  yellow  arms  and  legs 
and  streaming  white  cloths  attached,  went  fly- 
ing through  the  air.  The  rest  broke  through 
the  tumultuous  terror,  down-bearing,  tram- 
pling, crushing,  lashing  with  their  trunks, 
rolling  forward  or  swaying  from  side  to  side, 
rebounding  from  monstrous  jostles,  then  rock- 
ing for  a  while  and  almost  overtoppling,  like 
mountainous  icebergs  in  collision.  Theja, 
squealing  like  Titanic  pigs,  they  thundered 
across  the  plain  to  the  cover  of  the  woods, 
and  tore  off  golden  howdahs  and  miserable 
men  against  trunks  and  low  branches,  and 
vines  like  cables. 


172  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

Some  scores  of  horses,  falling  in  the  first 
discharges,  rolled  over  their  bewildered  riders, 
kicked  a  little,  and  then  lay  quiet.  Two  hun- 
dred more  went  scampering  madly  everywhere, 
toward  us  no  less  than  away,  the  long,  naked 
legs  of  their  riders  making  streaky  wakes  in 
the  rice.  The  ox-carts  were  overturned,  and 
the  hapless,  helpless  creatures  that  dragged 
them  lay  crippled  and  bellowing.  As  for  the 
foot-men  and  the  "  general  camp,"  they  got 
their  unconditional  discharge.  Some  went 
home;  some  went  to  Preitta,  the  place  of  sor- 
row ;  some  to  Niria,  the  place  of  the  damned. 
Either  was  better  than  going  to  Ava. 

As  for  us,  we  had  no  flag  of  truce  to  receive, 
no  dead  to  bury,  no  prisoners  to  exchange  ;  so 
we  turned  and  paddled  back  again,  some  of-  us 
thinking  we  had  done  a  fine  thing,  others — 
not. 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      173 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

OUR  CONVOY — THE  DACOITS'  AMBUSH — LYNCHING  FRA  DIAVOLO 
— THE   WOUNDED   WOMEN — THEEN-GYEE. 

AT  Yangeenchinyah,  on  our  return,  a  cheer- 
ing scene  awaited  us. 

The  river  was  quite  bridged  across  with  more 
than  seven  hundred  of  the  covered  boats  of  the 
country.  Huddled  under  the  bank  from  one 
end  of  the  town  to  the  other,  and  tethered  to 
stakes  on  the  edge  of  the  channel,  they  were 
filled  with  the  women  and  children  of  poor  vil- 
lagers, mostly  Peguans — salt-dryers,  fishermen 
and  laborers — with  their  simple  household 
effects,  their  rude  tools  and  utensils.  Since  we 
passed  up,  they  had  hastily  gathered  into  these 
little  boats  their  moveables  of  every  sort,  re- 
solved, if  we  would  convoy  them,  to  return  with 
us  to  Rangoon  and  live  under  the  safer  sky  of 
the  Company's  rule. 

We  cordially  assured  them  of  our  protec- 
tion ;  and  with  boisterous  joy,  to  say  nothing 


174 


THE   GOLDEN    DAGON ; 


of  the  funny  confusion,  the  infinity  of  blun- 
ders, they  cast  off  their  fasts  and  followed  us, 
every  boat  "  on  its  own  hook."  It  was  amus- 
ing to  watch  the  eagerness  of  all  to  seize  the 
places  nearest  the  vessel ;  for  this  they  dis- 
puted and  wrestled,  and  often  fought,  and  some- 
times paid.  They  so  crowded  the  ship  that  it 
was  only  with  indefatigable  watchfulness  and 
pains-taking,  lest  many  of  them  should  be 
killed,  that  she  could  be  steered.  And  in  spite 
of  all  our  care,  more  than  a  score  of  boats  were 
crushed  against  the  sides,  or  caught  in  the 
wheels  and  swamped — the  people  in  them  be- 
ing rescued  not  without  some  severe  hurts. 

Three  thousand  child-like  barbarians,  less 
than  three  hundred  of  whom  had  ever  seen  a 
steamer  before  in  their  lives,  ever  heard  a  steam 
whistle,  or  seen  the  water  churned  up  by 
wheels — three  thousand  astonished  savages,  ex- 
cited, terrified,  awe-struck,  bewildered,  pulling 
seven  hundred  frail  and  clumsy  boats,  inextric- 
ably intertangled,  on  a  narrow  stream,  in  a 
tortuous  channel  and  a  racing  current,  be- 
tween ambuscaded  shores,  every  minute  in 
collision  and  often  under  the  wheels,  were 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IERAWADDI.      175 

enough  to  make  distracting  din — and  so  they 
did  :  women  bobbing  wildly  from  under  the 
sampans  and  back  again,  screaming  and  scold- 
ing ;  naked,  brown  babies  screeching  themselves 
into  fits  and  tumbling  overboard  ;  men  tugging, 
pushing,  climbing  from  boat  to  boat,  and 
hoarsely  shouting  all  the  while  ;  interpreters 
in  the  stern  of  the  steamer  advising  and  bully- 
ing in  four  languages  at  once ;  quarter-masters 
and  boatswains  damning  in  one  language 
enough  for  four. 

The  fact  was,  our  proteges  were  in  mortal 
terror  of  an  attack  from  the  shore.  And  pres- 
ently it  came. 

Ten  or  twelve  miles  below  Yangeenchinyah, 
we  came  upon  a  cluster  of  bamboo  houses  in  a 
clump  of  low  crooked  trees.  Here,  we  had 
been  forewarned,  a  strong  party  of  dacoits,  who 
for  years  had  made  the  place  their  rendezvous, 
would  fire  into  our  convoy.  As  we  approached 
the  spot,  the  excitement  of  the  boats-people  at 
first  rose  to  the  highest  pitch  of  defensive  pre- 
paration, and  then  subsided  into  a  watchful 
stillness,  quite  awful  after  the  bedlam  din  that 
had  never  lulled  till  then.  The  women  crept, 


176  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

whispering,  under  the  sampans,  and  even  the 
babies  became  as  still  as  though  a  thousand 
nipples  stopped  their  mouths  at  once. 

Presently  some  twenty  or  thirty  fellows 
with  muskets  and  dhars,  naked  but  for  their 
breech-cloths  and  scanty  red  turbans,  emerged 
from  a  thicket  a  few  rods  below  the  houses, 
and  ran  along  the  bank  toward  the  steamer. 
They  seemed  to  have  no  care  to  conceal  them- 
selves, but,  on  the  contrary,  studiously  exposed 
their  persons,  waving  white  cloths  and  cordially 
hailing  us  as  they  ran,  crying  "  dacoitee !" 
"dacoitee!"  So  boldly  was  the  manoeuvre 
executed  that  there  was  not  one  of  us,  even  of 
the  natives,  who  did  not  believe  these  men  to 
be  of  our  own  party — a  few  of  the  boats- 
people,  perhaps,  who  had  landed  to  ferret  out 
the  dacoits  and  set  our  "  dogs"  on  them. 
When  they  reached  the  houses,  they  passed 
around  and  behind  them,  and  disappeared  in 
the  thicket  beyond  the  clump  of  trees. 

At  this  time  the  steamer  was  quite  dis- 
engaged from  the  flotilla ;  the  captain,  in  order 
to  disembarrass  her  movements  in  the  event 
of  her  guns  coming  into  play,  had  ordered  the 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      177 

boats  to  drop  astern  when  we  first  sighted  the 
village.  Thus,  although  we  were  presently 
relieved  of  the  crush  and  confusion,  our  ap- 
parent protection  to  the  great  body  of  the 
boats,  which  was  just  now  passing  the  sharp 
bend  by  which  we  approached  the  town,  was 
materially  diminished. 

The  Phlegethon  had  dropped  anchor,  and  the 
guns  were  being  run  out  for  the  enemy,  when 
the  boats  arrived  opposite  the  houses.  At  once, 
nearly  two  hundred  dacoits,  headed  by  the 
very  men  who  had  hailed  us,  rushed  from 
between  the  thicket  and  the  houses,  and,  run- 
ning to  the  edge  of  the  bank,  fired  a  volley  into 
the  thickest  of  the  boats — and  again,  and  again, 
before  the  steamer,  now  lying  quite  across  the 
stream,  could  answer.  Many  were  wounded 
and  not  a  few  killed,  and  the  uproar  and  con- 
sternation were  at  their  height. 

But  in  those  three  volleys  the  dacoits  had 
done  their  worst.  Our  first  discharge  of  grape 
cut  many  of  them  down,  and  sent  the  rest  fly- 
ing in  every  direction.  An  old  Peguan  chief, 
with  twenty  men  from  the  boats,  armed  with 
ship's  muskets,  chased  them  through  the  bam- 

8* 


178  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

boos  and  caught  their  Fra  Diavolo.  They 
brought  the  fellow  down  to  the  bank,  and, 
having  tied  him  to  a  tree,  shot  him  dead  ;  then, 
decapitating  him,  they  mounted  his  head  on  a 
pole  and  hoisted  it  in  the  branches  of  the  tree  for 
a  scare-dacoit.  They  would  have  burned  him 
alive,  and  earnestly  besought  Captain  Neblitt's 
consent  to  that  picturesque  addition  to  the 
programme.  But  we  had  neither  the  time  nor 
the  ferocity;  so  to  their  disappointment  and 
disgust  they  had  to  content  themselves  with  a 
more  civilized  and  Christian  style  of  thing.  Be- 
fore returning  to  the  ship  they  were  ordered  to 
burn  the  houses,  a  duty  which  they  brilliantly 
performed,  amid  the  outlandish  glorification  of 
their  friends,  male  and  female,  big  and  little, 
and  some  astonishing  gymnastics  of  a  warlike 
character  on  their  own  part. 

Among  our  wounded  were  seven  women, 
more  or  less  severely  hurt,  from  whose  bodies 
musket  balls — or,  rather,  irregular  plugs  of 
lead,  hastily  hammered  between  two  stones — 
were  extracted  by  the  ship's  surgeon,  with  a 
fortunate  result  in  all  the  cases. 

One  was  an  old  woman  of  more  than  sixty 


OK,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRKAWADDI.  179 

years,  shot  in  the  neck.  The  ball  had  struck  the 
lower  jaw,  carrying  away  a  splinter  of  bone, 
and  glanced  obliquely  downward  under  the 
integument,  lodging  near  the  clavicle  of  the 
opposite  side.  This  shapeless  lump  of  lead 
had  all  the  appearance  of  being  the  half  of  a 
crooked  plug,  partly  bitten,  partly  torn  with 
nippers  ;  for  it  had  a  sharp  point  and  a  ragged 
edge. 

In  another  case  the  ball  had  been  quite  flat- 
tened against  the  sacrum,  and  rebounding,  had 
dropped  out  among  the  woman's  clothes, 
where  we  found  it.  Another  had  entered  the 
back  near  the  spine  and  traversed  at  right 
angles,  to  be  imbedded  among  the  muscles 
over  the  lower  ribs. 

In  fact,  in  almost  all  the  cases,  both  of  men 
and  women,  the  balls  were  found  to  have  been 
deflected,  in  some  cases  with  extraordinary 
circuit.  This  was  to  be  attributed  to  the  irreg- 
ular surfaces  of  the  balls  and  the  inferior 
quality  of  the  dacoits'  powder.  With  only  two 
exceptions  the  women  had  been  struck  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  back,  owing  to  the  fact  that 
they  were  in  the  act  of  creeping  under  the 


180  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

covers  of  the  boats  when  the  villains  fired 
upon  them. 

I  shall  always  retain  a  tender  recollection  of 
one  poor  creature — quite  a  child,  though  a 
mother — who  was  under  my  care  for  several 
weeks  after  this  affair.  Her  wound  was  of  a 
desperate  character,  its  complications  most 
dangerous,  the  ball  having  penetrated  her  ab- 
domen, and  lodged  in  the  muscular  tissue  below 
the  navel,  on  the  right  side.  She  bore  the  ex- 
traction, which  was  tedious  and  agonizing,  with 
touching  fortitude,  convulsively  pressing  the 
hand  of  her  old  mother,  and  between  the  cruel 
twinges  addressing  the  fondest  expressions  of 
endearment  to  her  little  yellow  baby,  which, 
quite  naked,  lay  wonder-eyed  and  quiet  on 
the  old  woman's  shoulder  ;  and  when  at  last 
I  gave  her  the  ball  in  her  own  hand,  to  play 
with  and  keep,  there  was  no  mistaking  the 
hopefulness  and  capabilities  of  life  in  her  min- 
gled sobs  and  laughter. 

She  occupied  my  state-room  after  that  until 
we  removed  her  to  the  deck,  which  it  was  not 
safe  to  do  for  many  days ;  and  so  long  as  little 
Theen-gyee  lay  in  my  narrow  bunk  laughing 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      181 

feebly  at  the  baby,  and,  in  obedience  to  my  in- 
junction to  be  quiet,  folding  her  arms  against 
it  and  forbidding  her  heart — so  long  as  the 
patient  old  mother  sat  on  the  floor,  lowly- 
minded  and  full  of  faith,  holding  little  Theen- 
gyee's  hand  all  day  and  night,  waking  or  sleep- 
ing still  holding  the  hand,  keeping  baby  quiet 
with  a  string  of  bright  "goolden"  navy-but- 
tons, and  whispering,  now  to  the  mother-child, 
now  to  the  child-child,  those  dear  old  familiar 
phrases  which,  however  strange  the  tongue, 
the  eyes  so  readily  render  into  household  words 
— so  long  as  baby  kicked  and  crowed  and  had 
his  little  homely  functions,  and  protested  with 
all  his  lungs  against  the  substitution  of  the 
rice-spoon  for  the  nipple — there  were  some  less 
missionary  places  under  the  sky  of  Boodhism 
than  my  cuddy  in  the  Pklegethon,  and  many  a 
more  hopeless  heathen  than  Theen-gyee  or  I. 

Poor  child  !  how  eloquent — 1  mean  how 
flattering — her  gratitude  was !  For  nearly  a 
fortnight  she  would  take  a  cup  of  water  or  a 
plantain  from  no  hand  but  mine,  and  when  I 
brought  it,  would  clasp  my  fingers  and  pat  and 
smell  them — the  Burmese  never  kiss  ;  and  when 


182  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

she  lay  on  deck,  as  often  as  I  would  rise  to 
leave  her  after  sitting  by  her  side  awhile  to 
play  with  or  feed  her,  she  would  hold  me  fast 
by  the  ankle  with  both  hands,  sobbing,  laugh- 
ing, talking,  all  together — never  understanding 
that  I  could  not  understand.  I  began  to  think 
"  great  beer  "  of  myself,  and  a  very  small  vari- 
ety of  that  beverage  of  her  husband,  whom,  in 
spite  of  the  baby-doubt  in  his  favor,  she  une- 
quivocally snubbed. 

When  Theen-gyee  was  to  be  removed  to  the 
missionary  hospital  on  shore,  no  one  but  I 
must  lift  her  into  the  boat — no  one  but  I 
must  carry  her  into  the  doolee — none  but  I 
must  lift  her  from  the  doolee  into  the  house 
where  Mr.  Vinton  and  his  excellent  lady  helped 
to  make  her  whole  again.  And  when  at  last 
little  Theen-gyee  was  up  and  all  about,  the 
heartful  of  grateful  love  she  brought  me,  went 
further  than  the  blind  man's  basketful  of  rotten 
eggs,  to  show  how  much  less  worthy  I  was 
than  she  thought  me,  how  much  better  than  I 
thought  myself. 


OE,    UP  AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  183 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

YOUNG  INQEBOO — HIS   SHADOWS — HIS  TATTOO. 

NEAR  Pontalong  we  intercepted  four  large 
boats,  of  which  one,  much  carved  and  gilded, 
contained  the  young  Rajah  of  Ingeboo  with  his 
women  and  servants,  and  the  others,  pulled  by 
some  of  his  people,  were  filled  with  household 
effects  and  provisions.  This  young  fellow  had 
crossed  from  Martaban,  and  was  on  his  way 
up  to  join  his  father,  who,  with  the  Woons  of 
Martaban  and  Dallah,  had  led  the  magnificent 
array  which  our  shells  so  suddenly  brought  to 
nought.  Under  the  rice,  in  one  of  the  boats, 
we  found  eleven  thousand  rupees  in  little  cakes 
of  raw  silver,  beside  about  fifty  muskets,  lances, 
and  dhars.  The  young  Rajah  lost  also  his  gold 
umbrella  and  a  fine  dhar  in  a  silver  scabbard. 

As  a  type  of  the  Burmese  aristocrat,  this 
young  gentleman  was  well  met :  Tall — more 
than  six  feet,  I  should  think,  a  rare  stature 
among  the  Burmese  —  erect  and  well-pro- 


184  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

portioned,  though  robust  even  to  fatness ;  his 
skin,  several  shades  lighter  than  in  the  common 
herd,  smooth  and  polished ;  his  chin  and  cheeks 
effeminate,  his  lips  amorous,  his  eyes  lazy,  his 
hair-knot  worn  petit-maitrely  on  one  side,  his  feet 
sandaled,  his  tattooing  elaborate,  his  breech- 
cloth  voluminous,  his  turban  jaunty,  his  whole 
attire  foppish ;  proud,  apathetic,  supercilious, 
or  fawning,  as  the  occasion  demanded ;  formal, 
politely  treacherous — and,  I  doubt  not,  cruel 
in  his  own  jurisdiction,  for  the  attendant  who 
bore  his  betel-box  and  spittoon  had  alert  and 
timid  eyes. 

When  Mrs.  Judson  described  the  Burmese  as 
"  a  lively,  industrious,  and  energetic  race,  fur- 
ther advanced  in  civilization  than  most  of  the 
Eastern  nations — frank,  candid,  destitute  of  that 
pusillanimity  which  distinguishes  the  Hindoos, 
and  of  that  revenegful  malignity  which  is  a  lead- 
ing trait  in  the  Malay  character,"  she  had  in 
her  mind's  eye  the  unsophisticated,  confiding 
fishermen  or  peasants,  or,  perhaps,  the  gentle, 
patient,  honest  Karens,  not  courtiers  of  the 
stamp  of  this  coxcomb  of  Ingeboo.  The  differ- 
ence between  the  peasant  and  the  noble,  the 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      185 

ruled  and  the  ruler,  in  Burmah,  is  just  the  dif- 
ference between  primitive  ingenuousness  and 
studious  guile.  The  first  often  deserve  the 
best  which  the  partial  Syraes  has  said  for  them  ; 
on  the  latter  even  our  bitter  Abdoolah  was  not 
too  severe. 

The  foppery  of  the  young  Rajah  afforded  us 
infinite  amusement.  As  long  as  his  floating 
menage  was  towing  astern  he  honored  us  with 
two  visits  daily,  before  and  after  noon,  hauling 
alongside  in  a  very  humble  dug-out ;  and  on 
these  occasions  he  ostentatiously  presented 
himself  in  fresh  vanities  for  each  new  visit,  as 
if  to  astonish  us  with  the  splendor  and  abund- 
ance of  his  wardrobe.  I  do  not  remember 
being  called  upon  to  admire  him  twice  in  the 
same  combination  of  superlative  fashion.  With 
each  new  suit  he  put  on  new  airs,  and,  in  spite 
of  our  laughter,  patronized  or  snubbed  us  with 
magnificent  ease. 

Though  but  nineteen  years  of  age,  as  was 
said,  he  had  engaged  largely  in  the  business  of 
love,  and  invested  no  little  of  his  leisure  and 
condescension  in  certain  dainty  material  where- 
with to  do  his  best  for  the  scanty  population 


186  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

of  the  Burman  empire.  Plainly,  our  charming 
prisoner  was  a  Burmese  sensualist  of  the  warm- 
est sort,  and  if  his  wives  and  concubines  were 
less  numerous  than  Solomon's,  it  is  certain 
that  they  had,  therefore,  no  sinecures  among 
them. 

Sometimes,  in  the  evening,  as  we  sat  in  the 
stern,  smoking  cheroots  on  the  bull-ring  and 
looking  down  among  the  shadows  of  young 
Ingeboo's  boat,  toward  where  the  petroleum 
taper  glimmered  behind  the  Turkey-red  curtain 
that  veiled  his.  inner  temple,  we  could  spy 
shadows  that  were  like  young  bosoms,  and 
catch  sounds  that  were  like  the  laughter  of 
romping  girls ;  and  as  generous  conquerors 
should,  we  rejoiced  that  our  prisoners  were  not 
pining. 

Once  a  shadow  stepped  out  into  the  foreground 
and  stood  on  the  edge  of  a  stream  of  moonlight ; 
next  morning  I  gave  the  lord  of  that  shadow 
two  bottles  of  Heidsick  champagne,  and  beg- 
ged that  he  would  keep  it  for  the  entertainment 
of  the  vision.  For  once,  the  conceited  young 
prig,  astonished  exceedingly  by  the  gold  labels 
and  the  silver  tops,  looked  truly  humble  and  sa- 


OB,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      187 

laamed  accordingly.  Abdoollah  "hoped  that 
he  appreciated  the  honor  done  him,"  assuring 
him  that  I  was  a  lord  of  a  great  many  gold 
umbrellas  and  the  chain  of  nine  strings,  and 
that  in  my  kingdom  rajahs  of  my  degree  drank 
only  silver  wine — except  when  princes  called 
on  us,  when  we  opened  the  gold. 

Young  Ingeboo  was  seemingly  overpowered. 
With  really  tiresome  salaams  he  backed  into  his 
canoe  and  retired  to  his  mysteries,  jealously 
grasping  the  silver  tops,  and  still  astonished. 
All  that  day  we  saw  no  more  of  him.  On  the 
morrow  he  came  aboard  looking  headachy 
and  disappointed,  and  reported  in  confidence 
to  Abdoolah,  that  "  that  fussy  stuff"  was  a  hum- 
bug, and  but  small  beer  compared  with  brandy. 
The  puppy !  I  have  a  suspicion  that  the 
Shadow  knoweth  not  the  bubble  of  Heidsick 
to  this  day — that  he  never  even  gave  her  the 
silver  tops,  or  my  love. 

The  tattooing  of  young  Ingeboo  was  laid  on 
by  a  master-hand.  It  was  high  art  even  in 
Burmah,  where  artists  in  lampblack  and  fish- 
galls  are  held  in  the  first  esteem,  and  exten- 
sively fostered  by  the  State.  The  elaborate 


188  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

grotesques  and  arabesques  of  a  Burmese  gen- 
tleman are,  to  the  rude,  unmeaning  rings, 
stripes  and  patches  of  a  Polynesian  man-eater, 
what  the  "  Portrait  of  a  Lady,"  on  the  breast  of 
the  boatswain  of  the  Susquehannah,  is  to  the 
"  Bill  Stubs — his  mark,"  worn  by  the  cook 
of  canal-boat  No.  9,  under  the  hair  on  the 
back  of  his  hand — which,  by-the-by,  resembles 
an  old-fashioned  trunk  with  the  "  mange." 

An  inch  or  two  above  his  navel,  young  Inge- 
boo  was  encircled  with  fabulous  birds,  impossi- 
ble birds,  such  as  the  artist  could  have  seen  only 
in  the  aviary  of  the  Prince  of  the  air  spirits. 
These  were  done  in  vermillion — thirteen  birds, 
and  every  bird  standing  on  a  monkey's  head. 
Thus,  thirteen  blue  monkeys  girded  him  round 
about,  just  where  his  prfsho  was  tucked  under 
at  the  waistband.  A  small  crimson  serpent 
with  a  blue  head  was  coiled  about  his  navel, 
half  within  and  half  without — a  cunning  de- 
vice, so  expertly  done  that  the  little  creature 
seemed  just  emerging  from  the  hollow.  The 
thirteen  blue  monkeys  grinned  on  the  backs 
of  thirteen  blue  hogs  of  Bassien,  with  blush- 
ing tails;  and  after  that  all  were  blue,  and 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN   THE    IRRAWADDI.  189 

blending  one  into  the  other.  The  tiger,  that 
was  a  hog  at  first,  digressed  into  a  lion  before 
it  arrived,  by  way  of  a  rhinoceros,  at  the  shape 
of  an  elephant  on  its  route  to  a  crocodile ;  and 
having  got  by  such  a  zoological  concatenation 
— with  a  better  idea,  than  when  you  started,  of 
the  doctrine  of  transmigrations — to  the  condi- 
tion of  a  Nat  in  young  Ingeboo's  loins,  you 
were  prepared  for  the  fiery  demons  that  occupi- 
ed the  pillars  of  his  thighs. 

Yet  were  these  diverse  shapes  so  softly 
blended — with  no  interstices  of  naked  skin,  or 
abrupt  transitions  from  bird  to  beast,  from 
reptile  to  devil — that  you  drifted  gently  down 
the  tide  of  pictured  grotesqueness  without  a  vul- 
gar surprise  on  either  hand.  A  little  way  off, 
our  Ingeboo  Brummel  might  have  passed  for 
an  eccentric  young  gentleman  in  very  tight 
blue  breeches  with  a  red  waist-band.  Indeed, 
I  saw,  last  winter,  in  the  window  of  a  tailor's 
shop  on  Broadway,  a  pair  of  French  "  pants," 
the  pattern  of  which  was  evidently  designed  by 
somebody  who  knew  somebody  who  had  seen 
our  young  Rajah  without  his  pu'sho. 


190  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

THE    PAGODA    ROAD POONGHEE    AND    MISSIONARY — THE    BA- 
ZAAR— DISEMBOWELING   THE   GODS BURMESE   VENERATION. 

RANGOON,  on  our  return  thither,  is  filled 
with  bustling  builders  and  lively  bazaars.  The 
panorama  of  the  Pagoda  Road,  from  the  river 
up,  presents  some  strange  encounters  and  con- 
trasts. 

The  yellow-draped  and  meditative  poon- 
ghee,  barefooted  and  with  shaven  crown,  at- 
tended by  a  boy,  himself  in  little,  quietly 
raises  his  impurturbable  eyes  to  salute  the 
searching,  interrogative,  solicitous  Yankee  mis- 
sionary, in  white  beaver  hat  and  white  neck-tie, 
the  same  as  at  home — his  head  erect,  his  eyes 
everywhere;  his  thoughts  divided  between  the 
scene  around  him,  his  latest  instructions  from 
the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions,  the  prospects  of  his  Karen 
school,  the  site  of  his  new  hospital,  the  number 
of  native  Testaments  he  must  procure  from  the 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.       191 

Mission  Press  to-morrow,  the  sore  on  his  pony's 
back,  and  the  side-saddle  which  must  be  al- 
tered for  his  little  girl. 

Poonghee  meditates  along,  unruffled,  quite 
content — wondering,  perhaps,  why  this  dis- 
tracted Kula,  this  stranger,  should  come  so  far 
to  fret  for  him,  whose  soul  is  comfortable, 
whose  conscience  is  satisfied  and  still — won- 
dering if  there  is  no  Nieban,  no  perfect  and 
eternal  calm,  for  the  strange  priest  and  his  God. 

Missionary  hurries  on,  asking  his  crowded 
heart  how,  in  the  time  which  is  left  to  it,  it  can 
save  all  these  souls  alive  and  heal  the  pony's 
back.  Perhaps  a  dozen  Karen  youths,  of  both 
sexes,  follow  at  his  heels,  like  attached  and 
honest  dogs  —  carrying,  even  as  good  dogs 
would  carry  them,  hymn-books  and  catechisms: 
timid,  non-resisting  though  sorely  oppressed ; 
shy  and  shrinking,  holding  themselves  aloof 
from  cities  and  strangers ;  pastoral,  industrious, 
hospitable  in  their  own  communities ;  grateful 
for  the  least  kindness,  whether  to  their  bodies 
or  their  souls;  hoping  much  from  the  white 
man's  God,  and  believing  in  the  coming  of  a 
fair  Immortal  from  the  west. 


192  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON  ; 

The  lower  part  of  the  Pagoda  road  lay  among 
the  ruins  of  the  middle  stockade,  and  near 
by  were  some  handsome  poonghee-houses  and 
small  temples,  old  and  very  curious;  as  well 
as  many  grotesque  monsters  in  stone — Nats, 
griffins,  and  crocodiles.  This  quarter  was  now 
lined  with  shops  and  stalls,  and  stirring  with 
a  new-born  trade  in  earthen  jars  and  lacquered 
boxes,  trays,  and  cups ;  Turkey-red  for  turbans ; 
thabi  and  engi  cloth  for  jackets  and  skirts ; 
sandals,  palmyra  fans,  ear-rings,  and  feathers; 
tobacco,  betel-leaf,  areca-nuts,  gnapee  or  putrid 
fish  for  sauce,  ghee  or  clarified  butter,  a  little 
venison,  dried  lizards,  beetles,  pulse,  garlic,  and 
greens. 

Here  garrulous  old  women,  giggling  girls, 
and  sharp-looking  boys  pressed  their  outland- 
ish wares  upon  ensigns,  drill  sergeants,  mid- 
shipmen, boatswains'  mates,  and  pursers'  stew- 
ards, receiving  with  their  annas  and  pice  a 
great  variety  of  personal  compliments  more 
free  than  refined.  Here  was  the  gathering 
wherein  to  study  the  Burmese  in  their  political 
and  social  peculiarities ;  to  observe  their  do- 
mestic industries,  their  native  productions,  and 


OK,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      193 

their  personal  charms.  This  certainly  was  not 
the  place  for  you  to  be  eloquent  and  con- 
vincing in,  against  annexation  in  its  Dalhousiean 
aspect. 

Along  the  Pagoda  road,  on  both  sides  of  it, 
from  the  King's  wharf  to  the  Golden  Dagon, 
were  many  idols,  respectable  by  their  age  and 
stature ;  pot-bellied  old  fellows,  each  in  a  road- 
side shrine  to  himself.  These  our  fellows,  both 
of  the  land  and  sea,  had  robbed,  mutilated, 
and  variously  vandalized,  in  a  most  Christian- 
ish  manner — characteristic  of  a  people  who 
devour  warm  flesh,  among  whom  butchers  are 
an  institution,  and  whose  priests  go  abroad  in 
ships  and  take  their  women  into  the  pagodas. 

Soldiers,  sailors,  and  marines,  with  hatchet 
and  chisel,  had  performed  upon  the  corpulent 
persons  of  these  sacred  fogies  a  sort  of  rude 
Caesarean  operation,  by  which  they  were  de- 
livered of  sundry  manikin  gods  in  silver,  solid 
or  plated :  to  say  nothing  of  little  silver  scrolls 
inscribed  with  Pali  characters  of  mysterious 
import,  as  well  as  small  utensils  of  strange 
shapes  and  unknown  uses,  and  many  images  of 
fabulous  animals. 


194  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON  ; 

It  was  from  such  sources  as  this  that  our 
fellows  derived  all  their  loot,  as  they  called 
plunder ;  nor  had  the  unscrupulous  appropria- 
tion at  any  time  a  revolting  aspect  to  even  the 
most  Quixotic  minds  among  us.  No  popular 
affection  was  wronged,  no  religious  pride  in- 
sulted, no  superstition  alarmed.  The  Burmese 
are  satisfied  to  let  their  gods  and  devils,  from 
Guadma  to  the  Sacred  Goose,  take  care  of 
their  own  images,  never  doubting  that  they 
can  do  that  if  they  are  fit  to  be  gods  at  all ; 
and  though  they  do  not  go  the  length  of  lick- 
ing them  into  good  behavior,  as  some  African 
tribes  do,  they  would  hardly  fight  for  their 
silver  outsides  except  the  treasure  were  great, 
certainly  never  for  their  wood,  or  stone,  or 
lead. 

The  manufacture  of  these  gods  is  a  popular 
branch  of  industry,  and  their  sale  a  mere  busi- 
ness transaction.  Symes  visited  an  image-yard 
where  Guadmas  of  all  sizes,  and  in  every  style 
of  material  and  finish,  were  planted  in  rows 
like  fancy  gravestones,  or  stacked  in  piles  like 
fashionable  coffins. 

When  a  cunning  Burman  would  court  good 


OE,    UP    AND    DOWN    THE    IRKAWADDI.  195 

luck  for  his  affairs  by  "  a  deed  of  exalted  merit" 
— as  his  poonghee  calls  every  pious  investment, 
from  the  consecration  of  a  six-penny  image  to 
the  founding  of  a  supreme  pagoda — he  buys  an 
idol  in  lead  or  alabaster,  hires  a  reverend  gen- 
tleman to  sanctify  and  consecrate  it,  deposits  it 
in  a  temple  with  ceremonies  more  or  less 
expensive,  and  never  again  fashes  himself  about 
it.  If  the  god  was  worth  his  money,  it  can 
keep  itself  whole  and  in  good  repair;  other- 
wise it  deserves  to  be  smashed. 


196  THE   GOLDEN  DAGON ; 


CHAPTER   XXIY. 

THE   SPORTS    OF   THE    GROVE — FOOT-BALL — PUPPETS THE 

DRAMA — A    BURMESE    RACHEL. 

PASSING  through  the  bazaar  by  a  paved 
passage  leading  back  from  the  main  road,  you 
emerged  into  a  secluded  grove,  very  charming 
with  vines  and  low  shrubbery  and  the  swing- 
ing shadows  of  Palmyra  palms.  Here  one  of 
the  most  considerable  poonghee-houses  of  Ran- 
goon had  already  been  degraded,  by  an  Arme- 
nian trader,  into  a  sort  of  omnibus  shop  for  the 
troops  and  shipping.  Here  Burmese  idlers 
were  gathered  from  morning  till  night  in  the 
hope  of  catching  British  gold,  by  holding 
ponies,  or  carrying  bundles,  or  running  by 
your  side  with  umbrellas  when  you  came  into 
the  sun ;  exhibiting  dancing  dolls,  or  nautch 
girls — scarcely  more  life-like  than  their  wooden 
imitators ;  making  distracting  concerts  with 
gongs,  and  drums,  and  stringed  instruments 
and  horns ;  or,  when  the  long  shadows  of 


OK,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      197 

evening  fell,  suffering  the  flying  foot-ball  to 
alight  at  last,  which  had  danced  in  mid-air 
since  morning;  or  later,  by  the  red  light  of 
petroleum  bon-fires  and  innumerable  flame- 
dropping  torches,  enacting,  in  mythological 
plays,  the  doughty  deeds  of  Burman  demigods : 
the  abductions,  imprisonments  and  tortures, 
the  endless  persecutions  and  perplexities,  of  the 
Silver  Princess  of  the  Golden  Mountain :  the 
wondrous  transformations,  far  flights  and  mighty 
labors  of  the  Nats  :  the  wicked  spite  of  witches : 
the  enchantments  of  potent  magicians :  the 
small  sharp  tricks  of  microscopic  fairies :  the 
mischief  and  the  terror  of  fire-spitting  imps : 
and  all  the  plot  and  personnel  of  the  goblin 
drama,  the  same  in  Burmah  as  in  the  latitude 
of  Harlequin  and  Columbine — with  a  differ- 
ence, in  the  amount  of  sublimity  and  legiti- 
mate horror,  decidedly  in  favor  of  the  Silver 
Princess  of  the  Golden  Mountain. 

Foot-ball,  as  it  is  played  in  Burmah,  is  among 
the  most  lively  and  graceful  of  all  sports  of 
agility.  A  light  wicker  ball,  as  large  as  a 
man's  head,  and  sometimes  containing  jingling 
bits  of  metal,  serves  for  any  number  of  young 


198  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

men  and  boys,  the  more  the  merrier.  Some- 
times the  open  road  is  chosen  for  the  game ; 
sometimes  the  green  sward  of  a  clear  space 
around  a  poonghee-house ;  or  else — but  this 
must  be  during  some  gay  religious  holiday — 
the  pagoda  terrace,  or  the  smoothly  paved  court 
at  the  foot  of  the  broad  stairs. 

The  party  being  all  ready — sandals,  if  any, 
thrown  off',  and  engis,  or  whatever  else  might 
bind  the  elastic  limbs  and  impede  the  free,  lithe 
movements  of  the  players — the  ball  is  tossed 
aloft  by  whoever  happens  to  have  it  at  the  mo- 
ment, and  the  game  begins,  to  end  only  when 
the  toy  has  touched  the  earth,  or  been  struck 
with  the  hand,  or  caught  in  the  arms.  As  it  falls, 
it  is  met  by  the  nearest  with  his  ankle  or  his 
elbow,  or,  best  of  all,  the  sole  of  his  foot,  and 
with  a  quick,  sharp  impulse,  sent  flying  up 
again.  And  so  they  lead  it  an  aerial  dance  all 
day — sometimes  shooting  higher  than  any  house- 
top, higher  than  the  carved  gallery  atop  of  the 
great  monastery,  higher  than  the  upper  terrace 
of  Shway-Dagoung,  and  half  way  up  the  spire, 
over  the  tops  of  the  kioums,  up  the  tall  bam- 
boo flag-staff  as  high  as  the  Sacred  Goose, 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  199 

flying  in  the  very  face  of  the  colossal  Guadma, 
rebounding  even  from  his  breast — but  always, 
on  its  return,  finding  the  nimble  foot,  the 
quick  elbow,  ready  to  receive  it  and  send  it 
back  on  its  airy  flight  again. 

In  the  course  of  the  day  scores,  sometimes 
hundreds,  of  idlers,  coming  up,  fall  in  to  keep 
the  game  alive  and  fill  the  places  of  those  who 
are  continually  dropping  off;  so  that  the  few 
who  saw  the  tossing  of  the  ball  in  the  morning 
are  rarely  "in"  at  its  final  descent  at  dusk. 

The  puppets  are  most  ingenious  and  amusing 
toys.  They  are  dolls  of  wood  and  cloth,  from 
twelve  to  eighteen  inches  high,  numerously 
jointed,  and  the  joints  played  upon  by  means 
of  strings  which  pass  through  holes  in  a  stick 
held  in  the  performer's  hands.  They  represent 
both  sexes  ;  and  in  figure,  costume,  complexion, 
and  expression,  are  ridiculously  faithful. 

There  is  a  complete  pantomime  enacted  by 
each,  with  orchestral  accompaniments,  in  which 
the  plot  almost  invariably  turns  on  the  amours 
of  some  very  fat  old  nobleman  with  a  mima  of 
great  terpsichorean  qualifications  and  the  freest 
morals.  For  this  occasion  the  prodigal  maid 


200  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

affects  at  first  a  chary  mood,  to  afford  her  fat 
inamorato  an  opportunity  to  bring  out  the  full 
force  of  his  seductions ;  and  the  coyness  on  the 
one  side  and  soft  siege  on  the  other,  closing  in 
surrender  and  high  triumph,  are  conveyed  in 
attitudes,  gestures,  expression,  everything  but 
words,  somewhat  too  exact  for  the  most  fas- 
tidious ;  nor  is  any  touch  of  nature  lost  in  the 
climax. 

In  the  Burmese  theatre — which,  as  I  have 
said,  is  extemporized,  with  a  bonfire  and  abund- 
ance of  petroleum  torches,  in  any  sufficiently 
wide  street  of  a  village  where  the  houses  are 
not  so  crowded  as  to  be  in  danger  from  the 
sparks,  or  in  some  sacred  grove  or  court  of  a 
temple — the  plot  of  the  play  is  usually  drawn 
from  the  Ramayam  of  Balmiec,  a  collection  of 
fables  and  mythological  parables  of  the  widest 
popularity  among  the  Hindoos.  Only  the  out- 
line of  the  story  is  preserved,  the  language 
being  improvised  by  the  actors  with  astonishing 
cleverness  and  harmony  of  effect. 

The  female  characters  are  usually  personated 
by  men — the  profession  of  an  actress  being  con- 
sidered a  hundred  times  more  disreputable  than 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN   THE   IKRAWADDI.  201 

among  our  most  strait-laced  communities. 
Nevertheless,  at  a  dramatic  performance  which 
I  witnessed  at  Moulmein,  a  handsome  and 
very  graceful  young  woman  appeared,  whose 
performance  drew  rounds  of  applause  from  the 
most  sophisticated  of  our  party — gentlemen 
who  had  graduated  in  dramatic  criticism  at  the 
Queen's  Theatre,  and  the  Comedie  Frangaise. 
Her  pantomime  would  have  held  its  own  with 
the  sublime  declamation  of  Rachel;  and  she 
depicted  the  passions  of  fear,  anger,  grief, 
astonishment,  gratitude,  joy,  with  a  power  that 
made  the  barbaric  scene  and  its  superstitious 
surroundings  almost  awful. 

With  her  armlets  and  anklets  of  silver  and 
copper,  her  rich  engi  of  crimson  silk,  her  volu- 
minous scarf  of  pink  gauze,  discovering,  with 
her  every  graceful  pose  in  the  ruddy  light  of 
bonfire  and  torches,  glimpses  of  a  bosom  free, 
but  dim;  with  her  slender  arms  naked  and 
nut-brown,  her  fine  fingers  and  flexile  toes 
thickly  ringed,  her  great  ear-hoops  of  gold, 
and  the  silver  snood  in  her  hair,  she  was  the 
Princess  of  the  Silver  Mountain — (there  is 

always  a  Princess  of  the  Silver  Mountain). 
9* 


202  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

But  this  Princess  had  been  almost  as  naughty 
as  unfortunate  :  she  had  had  a  Huntsman-lover 
(there  is  always  a  Huntsman,)  and  a  little  baby, 
unbeknown  to  her  royal  father,  (the  play  cannot 
go  on  without  a  King,)  who,  instigated  by  the 
devil  in  the  shape  of  a  machinating  minister, 
(there  must  also  be  a  Minister,  very  pious  or 
very  crafty,)  had  banished  her,  baby  and  all,  to 
the  Cave  of  Fear  in  the  Pit  of  Witches,  where 
the  witches  plagued  her,  and  set  imps  (Imps 
likewise  are  essential,)  at  her  with  snakes  that 
bit  the  baby,  so  that  it  came  near  to  die.  And 
as  she  watched  by  the  moaning  boy,  her  own 
life  waning  with  the  light  of  his  eyes,  many 
devils  came,  making  the  usual  faces  and  noises, 
to  snatch  the  baby  away  and  take  it  to  feed 
the  hungry  Crocodile  that  bellows  in  the  Black 
River. 

But,  with  the  spell  of  the  Three  Whispers 
and  the  Seven  Thoughts,  and  the  charm  of  the 
water-beads,  (a  Charm  is  as  invariable  as  Harle- 
quin's sword  of  lath,)  she  kept  them  at  bay,  till 
her  Huntsman-lover  came  and  routed  them  out- 
right, with  the  Gong  of  Thunder  and  the  Dhar 
of  Flame.  Then  immediately  the  baby  was 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IKRAWADDI.      203 

made  whole,  and  the  scene  changed  to  the 
Garden  of  Gold  by  the  River  of  Ivory,  where 
the  Huntsman  was  blessed  by  the  Royal  father 
and  married  to  the  Princess  of  the  Silver 
Mountain,  to  reign  over  the  Immortal  Pea- 
cocks. 

Considering  the  meagerness  of  the  plot,  the 
poverty  of  the  properties,  the  impromptu  qual- 
ity of  the  scenery,  the  discordant  elements  of 
the  orchestra,  the  inappropriateness  of  every- 
thing but  the  lights,  this  representation  was 
not  bad.  Nothing  could  be  sicker-looking  than 
the  child,  or  more  devilish  than  the  devils,  or 
more  weird  than  the  witches,  or  fiercer  than 
the  Huntsman,  or  more  tremendous  than  the 
King. 

The  performance  of  the  Princess  was  won- 
derful, and  in  a  degree  painful.  As  she  sat 
rocking  to  and  fro  over  the  moaning  child,  and 
half  maundering,  half  crooning,  a  song  of  la- 
mentation— or  as,  on  the  entrance  of  the  imps, 
she  started  to  her  feet  and  began  dancing  round 
and  round,  or  from  side  to  side,  at  first  very 
slowly,  then  faster  and  faster,  then  whirling 
madly  between  them  and  their  prey,  her 


204  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

long  hair  standing  straight  out  from  her  head 
centrifugal ly,  her  armlets  and  anklets  clashing 
and  jingling,  her  eyes  fixed  in  a  spasm  of  ter- 
ror— or,  having  driven  them  off  once  more,  as 
she  threw  herself,  exhausted,  panting,  trem- 
bling, convulsed,  upon  the  ground  beside  her 
dying  boy — in  all  she  was  cruelly  tragic  with 
true  barbaric  passions. 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      205 


CHAPTEE    XXV. 

MINDAKEEN ONE    LITTLE    ROMANCE    OP    A    SHOULDER-STRAP, 

AND   ANOTHER   OF   PAIJAMAS. 

IN  spite  of  the  Armenian's  cheese  and 
crockery,  sardines  and  hardware,  clay  pipes 
and  curry-powder,  there  was  an  angel  in  the 
old  poonghee-house,  who  sometimes,  at  twi- 
light, filled  the  grove  with  the  loveliness  of 
her  apparition.  An  angel  in  a  plaid  engi,  and, 
instead  of  a  thabi,  a  Cashmere  scarf;  with  gold- 
embroidered  sandals  on  her  dimpled  feet,  and 
a  rose — by  Jove,  a  rose ! — in  her  hair :  where- 
fore we  called  her  the  Lady  Mindakeen — a 
Burmo-Armenian  angel,  with  short  locks  like 
a  boarding-school  girl,  and  a  blue  silk  umbrella 
instead  of  wings. 

As  often  as  seclusion  and  stillness  had  the 
grove  to  themselves,  and  the  falling  shadows 
would  serve  her  for  a  veil,  Mindakeen  came 
forth  with  her  little  Burmese  handmaidens,  to 
whisper  tip-toedly  under  the  banians  and  down 


206  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

by  the  pool-mirror  back  of  the  kioum.  And 
often,  as  I  plyed  between  the  pagoda  and  the 
ship,  and,  just  at  the  witching  hour,  came  to 
the  pretty  road-side  shrine  that  marked  where 
the  foot-path  turned  off  to  the  poonghee-house, 
and,  throwing  the  rein  of  my  heathen  pony 
over  the  neck  of  the  fourth  Boodh,  sat  down 
to  think,  upon  the  very  wood  or  stone  that 
some  man  as  good  as  myself  had  lately  bowed 
down  to  (how  hard  it  was  to  think,  to  feel,  to 
dream  in  such  a  scene,  and  come  away  remem- 
bering it !)  have  I  peered  for  Mindakeen  in 
among  the  shadows,  that  were  just  thick  enough 
to  confound  the  nice  hues  and  fine  lines  of 
half-a-dozen  ankles,  though  adding  lustre  to 
the  whiteness  of  the  solitary  rose-star. 

Not  even  her  peddling  husband,  nor  the 
curry,  clay-pipes  and  hardware,  could  make 
Mindakeen  common-place ;  for  she  had  a  history. 

An  old  Armenian,  long  resident  in  Rangoon, 
a  man  of  wealth  and  note  among  the  foreign 
merchants,  and  who  exercised,  it  was  said,  a 
marked  influence  with  eveiy  Woon  of  his  time 
as  to  measures  for  the  regulation  of  the  foreign 
trade,  took  to  wife  a  young  and  beautiful 


OB,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.     207 

Burmese  girl  of  the  lower  orders,  whom  he  had 
ransomed  from  slavery  by  the  payment  of  her 
father's  debts.  In  a  year  she  died  in  giving 
birth  to  Mindakeen,  who,  fostered  by  slave- 
nurses,  lived  and  waxed  in  surpassing  beauty. 
The  old  man,  despising  in  his  heart  the  whole 
Burmese  race,  reared  her  strictly  in  the  Arme- 
nian faith  and  ways,  and  directing  toward  the 
child  of  his  old  age  and  his  weakness  the  most 
cunning  vigilance,  pursued  her  with  spies 
when  she  went  abroad  to  bazaar  or  tank,  and 
challenged  every  comer  who  presumed  to  wear 
his  top-knot  on  one  side  and  fee  musicians  for 
her  sake. 

Especially  was  the  "  stern  parient"  a  hearty 
English-hater,  politically  and  socially.  He  had 
caught  more  than  one  pair  of  eyes  reconnoiter- 
ing  his  porches  and  compound  from  under  a 
gold-band,  and  more  than  once  he  had  ex- 
plained to  his  own  satisfaction  the  unwonted 
fidgets  of  Mindakeen,  as  she  sat  in  the  door 
making  fig-leaf  cigars,  by  the  proximity  of 
some  shining  rows  of  Company's  buttons.  So 
the  loose  trowsers  and  impudence  were  tabooed 
to  her  forever. 


208  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

But  in  this,  Armenia  worked  at  a  disadvan- 
tage. Bolts  and  bars  for  romantic  runaways 
are  not  the  fashion  in  Burmah ;  nor  are  veils, 
even,  imposed  upon  pretty  faces  by  law.  Min- 
dakeen's  area  of  freedom  was  almost  as  wide  as 
her  curiosity,  and  her  presence  in  bazaars,  at 
weddings,  and  in  holiday  processions  was  not 
stranger  than  it  was  welcome. 

So  once,  as  she  led  the  choir  of  maidens  at 
a  poonghee's  funeral,  a  gleam  of  brave  romance 
from  a  gold  shoulder-strap  dazzled  the  eyes  of 
her  filial  obedience,  and  at  the  same  instant  a 
side-long  glance  of  Woman's  Rights  from  under 
the  Mindakeen  lids  flashed  sharper  than  a  two- 
edged  sword  straight  to  the  heart  that  was 
nearest  the  shoulder-strap. 

For  weeks  after  that,  the  bones  of  this  Ran- 
goon Juliet's  nurse  ached  with  jaunting  up 
and  down  between  her  lady-bird  and  the  honest 
gentleman,  "  and  a  courteous,  and  a  kind,  and 
a  handsome,  and,  I  warrant,  a  virtuous;"  till 
one  day  Mindakeen  was  up  and  gone  with  her 
Shoulder-Strap  over  the  river  to  Dallah.  And 
immediately  the  old  Armenian  in  a  fit  of  rage 
burst  his  spleen  and  died,  which  was  timely  for 


OB,    UP   AND    DOWN   THE    IRRAWADDI.  209 

the  lovers,  who  might  else  have  tasted  the 
bamboo,  to  say  nothing  of  the  stocks. 

When  they  had  been  married  (not  to  be  too 
particular)  only  a  year,  Shoulder-Strap  took 
ship  to  Calcutta,  and  that  was  the  last  of  him 
for  Mindakeen.  Six  years,  according  to  law, 
she  waited  for  him ;  and  then,  with  all  an  East- 
ern woman's  faculty  of  reconciling  herself  to 
circumstances,  she  consented  to  the  clay-pipes 
and  curry-powder,  and  went  home  to  live  with 
her  father's  countryman  and  idyllize  the  poon- 
ghee-house,  in  spite  of  three  babies. 

Once  Mindakeen  had  the  fever-and-ague  and 
came  near  to  die,  but  with  some  quinine  I 
restored  to  the  banians  their  celestial  visitant ; 
whereupon  she  rewarded  me  with  a  pair  of 
disappointed  silk  paijamas  that  else  would 
have  clung — happy  paijamas! — to  the  sweetest 
knees  in  Burmah.  I  cherish  them  still ;  and  as 
long  as  a  thread  of  the  original  gift  can  be  dis- 
covered through  these  Yankee  darns,  they  shall 
serve,  as  well  as  a  lock  of  her  hair,  to  keep  my 
memory  green  and  her  ankles  slender. 

It  is  law  in  Burmah  that  if  a  doctor  lets  a 
sick  girl  die  he  must  pay  the  price  of  her  body, 


210  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

which  is  about  twenty-five  ticals — twenty  dol- 
lars ;  but  if  he  heals  her  she  becomes  his  own, 
and  he  may  take  her  away  to  his  house.  By 
that  wise  ordinance  Mindakeen  was  mine,  and 
the  paijamas  are  a  legal  document. 


OR,    UP  AND  DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  211 


CHAPTER   XXYI. 

AN  EXPERIMENT — BANDOOLA7S  BLUFF — GIVING  A  LITTLE  HERO 
THE   SLIP. 

GENERAL  GODWIN  had  all  along  argued  that 
there  was  not  water  enough,  even  in  the  high 
rains,  to  carry  the  small  steamers  to  Prome ;  or, 
granting  the  possibility  of  their  getting  there, 
how  were  they  to  get  back  ?  The  Commodore 
replied  by  sending  us  to  try.  Accordingly, 
when  the  Pklegethon  joined  the  Proserpine,  Me- 
dusa, and  Mahanuddy  at  the  rendezvous  above 
Jaloom,  Captain  Tarleton  of  the  Fox,  com- 
manding the  flotilla,  immediately  got  us  all 
under  way  for  Prome. 

We  steamed  up  the  river  against  a  powerful 
current,  and  at  l£  P.  M.  came  upon  a  six-gun 
battery  with  fifteen  hundred  men,  at  Pah-now. 
"We  attacked  them  at  once,  and  they  fought 
well,  firing  irregularly  until  half-past  four,  by 
which  time  most  of  their  guns  and  themselves 
had  been  knocked  over.  Our  orders  were  posi- 


212  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

tive,  on  no  account  to  land  anywhere  short  of 
Prome ;  so  we  left  them  unceremoniously,  a  small 
party,  plucky  to  the  last,  firing  two  or  three 
shots  after  us  as  we  left.  Such  an  opportunity 
always  afforded  them  peculiar  satisfaction,  and 
I  doubt  not  they  dispatched  a  courier  to  Ava 
to  report  that  they  had  driven  us  off  disabled. 

On  our  passage  up,  villagers  hailing  us  from 
the  banks  said  a  son  of  the  Maha  Bandoola  had 
intrenched  himself  in  a  strong  position  at  Akok- 
toung,  with  twenty-five  hundred  men  and  twen- 
ty guns ;  and,  sure  enough,  we  found  him  there 
— only  his  men  were  seven  thousand  and  his 
guns  were  forty — occupying  a  position  of  pictur- 
esque strength  on  the  top  of  a  high  bluff  at  a 
bend  in  the  river,  just  where  it  separates  Pegu 
from  Burmah  proper;  in  fact,  this  conspicuous 
landmark  is  the  key  to  the  kingdom  of  Ava.  It 
is  twelve  hundred  feet  high,  and  inaccessible 
save  by  a  difficult  foot-path  at  the  back. 

To  imposing  ramparts  erected  by  nature  Ban- 
doola had  made  extensive  artificial  additions. 
He  had  his  heaviest  guns  at  the  base  of  the 
bluff  on  the  river's  level,  to  hull  us ;  his  lighter 
guns  and  musketry  were  stationed  all  over  the 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.     213 

face  of  the  eminence  up  to  the  very  top.  By 
this  disposition,  had  we  been  compelled  to  pass 
within  range,  he  could  have  sunk  every  steamer; 
with  his  musketry  alone  he  could  have  swept 
our  decks.  The  current  runs  powerfully  around 
the  point,  and  we  should  have  been  an  hour  or 
more  under  the  full  weight  of  his  fire,  without 
the  possibility  of  returning  a  shot. 

But  we  gave  him  the  go-by.  Right  over 
against  Akoktoung,  as  Bandoola's  bluff  was 
called,  was  the  village  of  Youngtzay,  lying  in 
the  hollow  of  the  river's  elbow;  and  at  the 
upper  end  of  Youngtzay  a  narrow  arm,  quite 
out  of  Bandoola's  range,  was  separated  from  the 
main  stream  by  two  small  islands,  to  join  it 
again  two  miles  above.  Two  months  before, 
this  creek  was  entirely  dry,  and  of  course  it 
had  never  entered  the  sagacious  pate  of  the 
Little  Hero,  "  the  son  of  his  father,"  that  ves- 
sels of  our  apparent  draught  would  adventure 
the  passage.  By  this  we  dodged  him. 

As  we  approached  the  village,  thousands  of 
the  gentle,  child-like  people,  forever  treat- 
ing us  to  surprises  of  foolish  trust  and  fear- 
lessness, were  seated  on  the  shore — old  men 


214  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

and  women,  maidens,  young  mothers,  and 
children.  They  salaamed  to  the  passing  steam- 
ers, the  mothers  bouncing  their  little  ones  and 
laughing,  the  girls  waving  white  cloths  and 
tossing  flowers  in  the  air,  and  the  young  men 
and  little  naked  boys  running  along  the  bank 
to  point  out  to  us  the  safe  way  to  Prome,  by  the 
creek.  And  this  under  the  very  eyes  and  guns 
of  a  fierce,  unsparing  savage,  at  whose  mercy 
they  would  be  even  before  we  were  out  of 
sight. 

But  so  it  was  everywhere.  In  the  lower 
provinces,  which  we  had  just  left,  the  inhabit- 
ants were  flocking  by  thousands  to  take  refuge 
under  the  British  flag,  imploring  and  finding 
protection  and  aid.  Wherever  the  people  had 
been  allowed  the  use  of  their  eyes  and  ears, 
they  had  been  quick  to  perceive  the  advantage 
of  an  alliance  with  the  enemies  of  their  cruel, 
crushing  government,  and  had  hailed  our  ad- 
vent with  a  thousand  welcomes. 

It  was  now  late,  and  the  current  was  torrent- 
like.  We  pushed  on  under  full  power  till  the 
moonlight  left  us,  and  then  anchored  in  the 
dark. 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      215 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

PBOME — THE  LADIES AN   INDIGNANT   BLOOMER — SURPRISING 

A  GREAT   GENERAL ASTONISHING   HIM. 

AT  day-break  we  were  abreast  the  ghauts 
of  Prome.  We  found  the  inhabitants  unadvised 
of  our  approach,  and  unprepared  to  oppose  us. 
With  the  insane  confidence  peculiar  to  the 
Burmese,  they  had  been  making  themselves 
comfortable  in  the  conviction  that  either  Ban- 
doola  would  blow  us  out  of  the  water,  which 
would  be  good  for  them,  or  we  should  blow 
him  off  his  rock,  which  would  be  better.  They 
had  guns  enough,  but  no  powder ;  Bandoola 
had  taken  it  all  with  him,  assuring  them  that 
there  would  thenceforth  be  no  use  for  guns  or 
ammunition  above  Akoktoung.  So,  like  all 
the  rest,  they  came  down  to  the  bank  and 
squatted  there,  seeming  even  glad  to  see  us. 
At  first  they  supposed  we  had  finished  "  the 
son  of  his  father." 

We   took   twenty-three    guns,   three    state 


216  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

boats,  and  seven  superb  bells.  There  were 
many  tons  of  shot  which  we  had  not  time  to 
remove.  The  Promans  themselves  were  active 
in  aiding  us  to  ship  the  guns. 

The  landscape  at  Prome  is  Rhine-like  in  its 
picturesqueness.  The  lands,  which  have  been 
low-lying  and  jungly  ever  since  Rangoon,  now 
suddenly  swell  into  green  hills,  or  are  broken 
and  upheaved  in  irregular  piles  of  grim  granite  ; 
and  the  outline  of  timber-crowned  mountains 
is  sharply  denned  against  the  Northern  sky. 
The  river,  too,  widens  as  suddenly,  and  becomes 
a  lake-like  expanse,  flashing  and  canoe-dotted. 

Then  Prome  has  its  golden  pagoda,  and  its 
ruined  fort,  and  its  pillared  banian,  and  a 
curious  alley  of  palms.  There  are  some  very 
Westernish  slopes  opposite,  that  look  as  though 
they  might  be  hiding  a  Christian  barn  behind 
them,  in  spite  of  three  snowy  pagodas  not  a  long 
gun-shot  off. 

That  day,  bevies  of  merry  girls,  a  score  at  a 
time,  came  off  to  see  us,  matronized  by  certain 
half-bearded  "  females,"  very  ugly,  very  garru- 
lous, and  by  no  means  nice.  The  pretty  crea- 
tures were  too  curious  to  be  over  shy,  if  they 


OK,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      217 

were  not  also  too  innocent ;  and  the  unsophis- 
ticated way  in  which  they  made  free  with  the 
freedom  of  the  ship  which,  of  course,  we  gal- 
lantly offered  them,  was  certainly  funny 
enough,  and,  perhaps,  would  have  been  em- 
barrassing had  they  not  been  only  heathens. 

They  rummaged  our  bunks,  and  without  a 
blush  made  merry  over  the  mysteries  of  gun- 
room penetralia.  But,  alas!  not  one  of  them 
had  ever  fainted  in  her  life — they  were  as  igno- 
rant of  sal-volatile  as  of  the  Sacrament. 

One  strong-minded  puss — who,  from  her  un- 
terrified  study  of  our  costume,  must  have  been 
a  tailoress,  or  a  transmigrated  Bloomer — man- 
aged, with  the  aid  of  a  midshipman,  to  get 
into  a  pair  of  my  drawers — red  flannel  ones,  left 
from  Cape  Horn.  The  thing  was  easy  to  do, 
Middy  being  a  handy  lad,  and  the  only  impedi- 
ment one  short  skirt  of  Turkey-red,  open  at 
the  side  from  the  hip,  and  betraying  every 
moment  "  some  modest  lines  of  nut-brown 
limb."  Our  Proman  Bloomer  was  highly 
elated,  showing  her  Woman's  Rights  even 
more  than  is  necessary  in  crossing  Broadway 

after  a  shower,  and  when  asked  how  she  liked 
10 


218  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

red  flannel,  answered  in  a  Burmese  syllable  or 
two,  which,  being  politely  rendered  into 
English,  meant  "  tickle." 

Indeed  she  was  in  high  glee,  until  I  asked  the 
most  knowing  of  the  old  "  females" — one  who 
claimed  to  be  mother,  first  to  this  maid,  then 
to  that,  and  who  displayed  first-rate  business 
qualities — "  flow  many  rupees  for  the  merry 
mima?" 

No  sooner  were  the  playful  words  repeated 
to  the  pretty  creature,  than  instantly,  her  April 
face  overclouding,  she  flung  all  my  little  gifts 
on  the  deck  with  a  beautiful  angry  gesture, 
and,  with  exclamations  of  mingled  astonish- 
ment, indignation,  and  terror,  flew  to  the  deck 
and  over  the  gangway,  ere  we  had  guessed  the 
reason  why,  and  flung  herself  into  her  boat. 

Pushing  off  into  the  stream,  she  slowly  pad- 
dled "off  and  on"  between  the  steamer  and  the 
shore.,  sobbing  and  scolding  with  the  most 
charming  child-likeness.  No  explanations,  no 
coaxing,  no  for-shames  could  move  her ;  and 
when  I  went  to  the  side  of  the  ship  and  tried 
to  look  my  sweetest,  and  a  little  injured,  she 
became  highly  dramatic.  Dropping  her  paddle 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  219 

in  the  bottom  of  the  canoe,  she  dipped  her 
pretty  fingers  into  the  water  on  both  sides  of 
the  slender  craft,  and  holding  them  on  high, 
all  dripping,  she  literally  "washed  her  hands 
of  me." 

As  for  the  others,  they  tittered,  and  giggled, 
and  simpered,  and  smirked,  and  pouted,  and 
bridled  in  the  good  old  way,  the  same  in  Yan- 
.  geenchinyah  as  in  Yankee  land.  When  we 
pointed  to  the  guns,  and  made  faces,  and  said 
"boom!"  they  screamed  little  screams,  and 
fluttered  off  a  yard  or  two,  and  then  returned, 
did-you-evering  and  no-I-nevering  as  plainly  as 
mouths,  and  eye-brows,  and  hands  could  do  it. 
And  when  we  pointed  to  the  white  rolls  of 
"  stowed"  hammocks  in  the  nettings,  and  said 
"boom !"  to  them  also,  they  played  over  again 
their  little  foolish  trepidations  as  naturally  as 
before,  and  as  prettily. 

With  pieces  of  Turkey-red,  and  handfuls  of 
bugle-beads,  and  some  artificial  flowers,  long 
before  provided  for  such  occasions,  I  secured 
the  intercession  of  a  dozen  of  them,  by  dint 
of  which,  my  outraged  Bloomer  was  induced 
to  accept  from  me,  for  a  peace-offering,  a  Ger- 


220  THE   GOLDEN    DAGON; 

man-silver  match-box,  with  little  wax  matches, 
the  crackling  of  which  would,  in  her  amiable 
moments,  have  delighted  her  exceedingly.  She 
caught  it  in  her  nimble  fingers,  I  tossing  it 
from  the  gangway,  and  that  was  the  last  I 
ever  saw  of  her. 

We  lay  off  the  town  all  night,  and  in  the 
morning,  after  reconnoitering  for  a  few  miles 
up  the  river,  we  started  homeward,  with  every 
prospect  of  having  to  run  the  gauntlet  past 
Bandoola.  We  had  seen,  as  we  came  up,  that 
the  right-hand  side  of  the  creek  presented,  at 
its  narrowest  part,  a  formidable  cover  behind 
rocks  for  a  few  heavy  guns  and  any  amount 
of  musketry,  and  that  if  Bandoola  were  capable 
of  average  celerity  of  movement  he  could  post 
at  least  a  thousand  men  there  to  cut  us  off  as 
we  returned.  Certainly,  under  such  circum- 
stances, there  would  be  scarcely  a  chance  of 
escape  for  any  vessel  that  might  get  aground. 
Our  guns  could  avail  us  nothing  in  a  position 
so  "  crowded,"  and  the  water  was  falling  rap- 
idly between  the  rains. 

Accordingly,  a  barricade  of  heavy  pieces  of 
timber  was  erected  on  the  bridge  to  protect 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      221 

the  Captain,  and  a  similar  defense  was  fur- 
nished to  the  man  at  the  wheel.  A  few  picked 
men,  with  muskets,  lay  down  close  under  the 
rail,  and  the  rest  were  sent  below.  Thus  we 
made  ready  for  the  creek  and  an  ambush. 

The  Medusa  ran  on  with  Captain  Tarleton, 
and,  as  she  entered  the  passage,  showed  the 
signal  to  close  and  support  her.  Just  then  we 
discovered  four  large  war-boats  crossing  over 
from  Bandoola's  bluff.  Each  boat  contained 
from  100  to  150  men,  and  had  a  light  gun  in 
the  bow. 

It  appeared  that,  although  Bandoola  had  ex- 
erted himself  with  creditable  activity,  we  had 
been  too  fast  for  him.  As  soon  as  his  boats 
were  made  out,  all  steam  was  crowded  on,  and, 
running  down  upon  them,  we  "  pitched  in" 
with  grape,  canister,  and  round  shot.  They 
gave  us  their  musketry,  from  the  boats  and  the 
town,  as  well  as  they  could,  but  with  no  effect. 
Our  fire  never  slacked  for  two  hours. 

At  the  end  of  that  time  we  had  killed  a  great 
many  of  Bandoola's  people,  burned  more  than 
half  the  town — of  which  he  had  taken  posses- 
sion since  we  passed  up,  most  of  the  poor  crea- 


222  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

tures  who  had  hailed  us  from  the  bank  flying  be- 
fore him  into  the  jungle — captured  seven  more 
guns,  destroyed  a  fleet  of  war-boats,  and  made 
prizes  of  three  gilded  state  barges  and  Ban- 
doola's  standard.  Never  was  barbarian's  mili- 
tary ambition  more  effectually  nipped  in  the 
bud. 

Leaving   her   consorts   then,  the  Phlegethon 
ran  down  to  Rangoon. 


OR,   UP   AND   DOWN   THE  IRRAWADDI.  223 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

THE   OATH  AND   IMPRECATIONS — MAIDENS,  WIVES,  CONCUBINES 
AND   PROSTITUTES. 

AT  Rangoon  I  attended  the  Police  Court  to 
see  Captain  Latter,  the  Provisional  Commis- 
sioner, administer  the  famous  Burmese  oath  to 
some  fellows  on  trial  for  dacoitee.  This  oath, 
as  adapted  to  Boodhist  consciences,  is  so  inge- 
niously terrible  that  even  a  Burman  dacoit 
shrinks  from  taking  it  in  vain.  If  is  inscribed 
on  leaves  of  palm,  bound  like  other  Burmese 
books,  and  held  over  the  head  of  the  witness 
with  certain  foolish  rites,  such  as  the  chewing 
of  pickled  tea,  sticking  out  the  tongue,  etc. 
In  the  excellent  translation  of  the  Padre  San- 
germano,  from  the  Book  of  Imprecations,  it  is 
-almost  literally  as  follows  : 

"  False  witnesses,  who  assert  anything  from 
passion,  and  not  from  love  of  truth — witnesses 
who  affirm  that  they  have  heard  or  seen  what 
they  have  not  heard  or  seen — may  all  such 


224  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

false  witnesses  be  severely  punished  with 
death  by  that  Q-od  who,  through  the  duration  of 
400,100,000  worlds,  has  performed  every  species 
of  good  work  and  exercised  every  virtue.  I  say, 
may  God,  who,  after  having  acquired  all  know- 
ledge and  justice,  and  obtained  divinity,  leaning 
upon  the  tree  of  Gaudma — may  this  God,  with 
the  Nat  who  guards  him  day  and  night — that 
is,  the  Assura  Nat — and  the  giants,  slay  these 
false  witnesses." 

[Here  follows  the  invocation  of  many  Nats.] 

"  May  all  those  who,  in  consequence  of  bribery 
from  either  party,  do  not  speak  the  truth,  merit 
the  eight  dangers  and  the  ten  punishments. 
May  they  be  infected  by  all  sorts  of  diseases. 

"Moreover,  may  they  be  destroyed  by  ele- 
phants ;  bitten  and  slain  by  serpents ;  killed 
and  devoured  by  the  devils  and  giants,  the 
tigers,  and  other  ferocious  animals  of  the  forest. 

"  May  whoever  asserts  a  falsehood  be  swal- 
lowed by  the  earth  ;  may  he  perish  by  sudden 
death ;  may  a  thunderbolt  from  heaven  slay 
him — the  thunderbolt  which  is  one  of  the  arms 
of  the  Nat  Deva. 

"  May  false  witnesses  die  of  bad  diseases ;  be 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IKRAWADDI.      225 

bitten  by  crocodiles ;  be  drowned.  May  they 
become  poor  ;  hated  of  the  king.  May  they 
have  calumniating  enemies.  May  they  be 
driven  away ;  may  they  become  utterly  wretch- 
ed ;  may  every  one  ill-treat  them  and  raise  law- 
suits against  them.  May  they  be  killed  with 
swords,  lances,  and  every  sort  of  weapon.  May 
they  be  precipitated  into  the  eight  great  hells, 
arid  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  smaller  ones. 
May  they  be  tortured.  May  they  be  changed 
into  dogs.  And  if,  finally,  they  become'  men, 
may  they  be  slaves  a  thousand  and  ten  thousand 
times.  May  all  their  undertakings,  thoughts, 
and  desires  ever  remain  as  worthless  as  a  heap 
of  cotton  burnt  by  the  fire. 

"  I  WILI,  SPEAK  THE  TRUTH.  If  I  speak  not 
the  truth,  may  it  be  through  the  influence  of 
the  laws  of  demerit,  viz. :  passion,  anger,  folly, 
pride,  false  opinion,  immodesty,  hard-hearted- 
ness  and  skepticism ;  so  that  when  I  and  my  re- 
lations are  on  land,  land  animals — as  tigers, 
elephants,  buffaloes,  poisonous  serpents,  scor- 
pions, etc. — shall  seize,  crush,  and  bite  us,  so 
that  we  shall  certainly  die.  Let  the  calamities 

occasioned  by  fire,  water,  rulers,  thieves,  and 
10* 


226  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

enemies  oppress  and  destroy  us,  till  we  perish 
and  come  to  utter  destruction. 

"  May  we  be  subject  to  all  the  calamities  that 
are  within  the  body,  and  all  that  are  without 
the  body.  May  we  be  seized  with  madness, 
dumbness,  blindness,  deafness,  leprosy,  and  hy- 
drophobia. May  we  be  struck  with  thunder- 
bolts and  lightning,  and  come  to  sudden  death. 

"  In  the  midst  of  not  speaking  the  truth  may 
I  be  taken  with  vomiting  clotted  black  blood, 
and  suddenly  die  before  the  assembled  people. 
When  I  am  going  by  water,  may  the  water 
Nats  assault  me,  the  boat  be  upset,  and  the 
property  lost ;  and  may  alligators,  porpoises, 
sharks,  or  other  sea-monsters,  seize  and  crush 
me  to  death  ;  and  when  I  change  worlds,  may 
I  not  arrive  among  men  or  Nats,  but  suffer  un- 
mixed punishment  and  regret,  in  the  utmost 
wretchedness,  among  the  four  states  of  pun- 
ishment— Hell,  Preitta,  Beasts,  and  Athurakai. 

"But  if  I  speak  the  truth,  may  I  and  my  rela- 
tions, through  the  influence  of  the  ten  laws  of 
merit,  and  on  account  of  the  efficacy  of  truth,  be 
freed  from  all  calamities  within  or  without  the 
body  ;  and  may  evils  which  have  not  yet  come 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE   IRRAWADDI.  227 

be  warded  far  away.  May  the  ten  calamities, 
and  the  five  enemies  also,  be  kept  far  away. 
May  the  thunderbolts  and  lightning,  the  Nat  of 
the  waters,  and  all  sea-animals,  love  me,  that  I 

may  be  safe  from  them.     May  my  prosperity 

• 
increase  like  the  rising  sun   and   the  waxing 

moon ;  and  may  the  seven  possessions,  the 
seven  laws,  and  the  seven  merits  of  the  vir- 
tuous, be  permanent  in  my  person  ;  and  when 
I  change  worlds,  may  I  not  go  to  the  four  states 
of  punishment,  but  attain  the  happiness  of 
men  and  Nats,  and  realize  merit,  reward  and 

PERFECT  CALM." 


Socially,  the  women  of  Burmah  enjoy,  as 
I  have  said  before,  in  some  respects  the  largest 
liberty.  They  are  not  immured,  as  elsewhere 
in  the  East.  Among  themselves  they  go  and 
come  at  will.  They  interchange  visits,  and  are 
admitted  to  the  privilege  of  a  friendly  inter- 
course as  free  as  that  which  their  most  in- 
dulged sisters  of  the  West  enjoy.  They  are 
great  gadders-about,  famous  peddlers  of  small 
talk  and  neighborly  scandal.  Every  village 
has  its  Mrs.  Grundy,  and  wherever  two  or 


228  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

three  are  gathered  together  in  her  name  there 
is  much  unbosoming.  The  did-you-ever  and 
no-I-never,  of  this  land  of  tea-fights,  quilting, 
and  liberty,  are  familiar  in  their  mouths  as 
household  words,  though  the  words  be  hard  to 
pronounce. 

They  have  their  spinnings  and  their  knittings 
and  their  darnings,  their  cuttings-out  and  bast- 
ings and  back-stitchings  ;  instead  of  crochet 
they  have  gold-flower  embroidery;  the  latest 
stones  of  Umerapoora  or  Prome,  brought  by 
some  neighbor  in  the  up-river  trade  who  went 
up  with  cotton  goods  and  came  back  with 
petroleum,  serves  them  for  the  last  new  novel ; 
and  they  have  got  as  far  as  sandal  powder  on 
their  way  to  rouge.  They  have  their  love- 
affairs  and  engagements  and  breakings-off,  their 
small  jealousies  and  heart-burnings — the  vani- 
ties for  the  girls,  and  the  household  cares  for 
the  matrons.  So  that,  in  these  respects,  our 
freest  western  society  has  no  advantages  to 
offer  them. 

Marriage  is  a  civil  contract  merely,  and 
divorce  easy  to  the  disgusted  wife;  but  the 
husband  cannot  repudiate  the  wife,  except  by 


OE,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IERAWADDI.      229 

expensive  legal  forms.  The  law  recognizes  but 
one  wife  ;  and  though  unlimited  concubinage  is 
allowed,  that  institution  is  ordered  in  a  manner 
at  once  flattering  and  convenient  to  the  true 
Mica,  the  wife  of  the  bosom.  The  concubines 
must  serve  her  in  menial  offices  ;  when  she 
goes  abroad  they  must  attend  her  with  drink- 
ing cup,  sandal  box  and  fan  ;  and  at  the  death 
of  the  husband  they  become  her  life-slaves. 

No  married  woman  can  be  seized  upon  for 
the  royal  pleasure  ;  and  that  was  a  noble  inno- 
vation of  Alompra's,  when  he  seated  his  wife 
on  the  throne  beside  him  in  full  court. 

At  a  wedding,  the  bride  is  made  much  of, 
and  consoled  with  compliments  and  gifts.  On 
the  bridal  day,  according  to  Symes,  the  happy 
man  must  beseech  her  acceptance  of  three 
loonghees  or  lower  garments,  three  tubbecTcs  or 
sashes,  and  three  pieces  of  white  muslin. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, woman  in  Burmah  is  subject  to  certain 
political  disabilities  to  which  the  "  strong- 
minded"  of  her  sisterhood — if  aught  so  loud 
and  ugly  existed  among  them — might,  with  a 
fair  show  of  justice,  demur. 


230  THE   GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

They  have  no  voice  in  the  imposition  of 
taxes,  although,  as  will  be  seen  presently,  they 
often  pay  those  taxes  with  their  bodies.  Like 
the  female  of  every  other  kind,  they  are  not 
permitted  to  emigrate,  though  often  married, 
with  or  without  their  consent,  to  foreigners. 
Although  they  are  frequently  sold  into  prosti- 
tution by  their  parents  or  the  State,  voluntary 
prostitution  is  punished  with  the  utmost  rigors 
of  the  social  code ;  and  when  a  suburb  of  Kan- 
goon,  called  Mima-shun-rua,  was  set  apart  for 
the  daughters  of  shame,  its  outcast  denizens 
were  regarded  as  slaves  of  the  State. 

The  evidence  of  two  women  will  not  balance 
the  weight  of  one  man's,  nor  can  a  woman  enter 
a  hall  of  justice  or  even  stand  in  the  porch,  but 
must  deliver  her  testimony  from  the  house-top. 
If  the  head  of  a  family  have  fallen  into  arrears 
for  his  head-tax,  and  become  liable  to  a  sum- 
mary visit  from  the  Myosagi  with  an  armed 
posse,  he  raises  the  money  on  the  body  of  a 
daughter,  or  even,  if  the  case  be  pressing,  of  his 
wife.  The  value  of  an  old  woman's  body, 
where  indemnity  is  to  be  paid  for  her  accidental 
killing,  is  about  seventeen  ticals,  or  ten  dollars. 


OK,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IREAWADDI.  231 

In  the  laws  of  Meenyoo,  which  are  the  Law 
of  Burmah,  it  is  laid  down  that  "  the  punish- 
ment of  his  crimes,  who  judges  iniquitously  and 
decides  falsely,  shall  be  greater  than  though  he 
had  slain  one  thousand  women,  one  hundred 
poonghees,  or  one  thousand  horses ;"  and  in 
another  place,  pious  Burmans  are  advised  that 
"  the  good  wives  are  of  three  sorts — the  wife 
that  is  like  unto  a  sister,  the  wife  that  is  like 
unto  a  friend,  and  the  wife  that  is  like  unto  a 
slave ;  but  the  best  of  these  is  the  wife  that  is 
like  unto  a  slave." 


232  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

p- 

HOW  IT  SEEMS  TO  OWX  A  WOMAN—  ^CTTTEE-MAYOUK  —  HER  AD- 


WHEN  our  New  York  Howadji  and  his  friend, 
the  Pacha,  were  in  the  desert  together,  under 
the  eyes  of  Kadra,  the  Pacha  was  seized  "  with 
a  laudable  curiosity  to  know  how  it  would 
'  seem  '  to  kill  a  man."  So  I,  yielding  to  the 
flattering  temptation  of  these  women-laws,  be- 
came possessed  of  a-  devil  of  longing  to  know 
how  it  would  seem  to  own  a  woman  —  some 
fair  and  tender  slave  who  should  fan  me  when 
I  slept,  knuckle  and  knead  me  in  the  diurnal 
shampoon,  lull  me  into  high-noon  naps  with 
the  tinkling  of  her  patola  and  the  comfort  of 
household  songs,  and  sew  on  my  moral  but- 
tons. 

Accordingly  I  imparted  my  romantic  whim 
to  my  Chittagong  Sancho,  who  forthwith  set 
about  finding  a  mima  to  my  mind,  and  Mayouk 
was  the  fruit  of  his  faithful  search. 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IKRAWADDI.  233 

Poor  little  Mayouk  !  her  father  owed  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  rupees ;  his  goods  had  all  gone 
in  the  fire  that  swept  away  the  old  town  when 
we  applied  our  rocket-torches  to  its  tinder 
houses ;  his  creditor  was  stern,  and  the  law 
was  plain ;  so  they  were  trying  to  raise  the 
money  on  little  Mayouk,  who  had  nothing  at 
all  to  do  with  the  negotiations,  save  to  make 
the  most  of  her  prettiness,  and  wait  at  home  for 
the  coining  man.  Goods  like  her  were  not  a 
drug  in  town,  nor  were  buyers,  such  as  I, 
plentiful  and  competing.  I  had  at  once  the 
rupees  and  the  Quixotic  sentiment — my  com- 
rades were  rarely  possessed  of  the  two  together. 
So  we  were  not  long  in  concluding  "  an  opera- 
tion." 

Insolvent  parents  demanded  two  hundred 
rupees — cautious  Chittagong  offered  one  hun- 
dred ;  insolvent  parents  pleaded  their  poverty 
— insensible  Chittagong  fairly  boasted  of  mine ; 
insolvent-  parents  extolled  the  charms,  the  ac- 
complishments, the  virtues  of  the  chattel — a 
rose  among  the  mimas,  a  singing-bird  in  the 
porch,  an  ant  in  the  house,  a  bee  in  the  bazaar — 
practical  Chittagong  made  light  of  her  endow- 


234  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

ments  and  magnified  the  rupees.  So  they 
compromised,  and  closed  at  a  hundred  and  fifty 
— Mima,  who  had  been  plainly  bored  through- 
out, seeming  merely  glad  that  the  thing  was 
over. 

Then  we  chewed  some  pickled  tea  all  round 
according  to  law,  the  old  people  laughing  con- 
sumedly  at  the  wry  faces  I  made  over  that 
imposing  ceremony  ;  an.d  I  took  little  Mayouk's 
hand,  and  should  have  said  something  tender 
to  her,  only  she  laughed.  I  besought  her  to 
promise  me  that  she  would  be  happy,  and  she 
said  she  thought  she  could  be,  with  a  pair  of 
ear-horns  and  a  new  loonghee.  I  assured  her 
she  had  but  to  give  utterance  to  the  wish  and 
she  was  free  as  air;  and  then  she  laughed 
again. 

So  I  built  a  little  house  for  Mayouk  next 
door  to  her  mother's,  and  gave  her  some  fine 
clothes,  and  the  ear-horns,  and  a  goat,  and  a 
new  idol,  and  did  not  teach  her  English  in 
exchange  for  Burmese  which  she  did  not  teach 
me ;  and  I  employed  the  old  lady  to  do  my 
washing,  and  paid  the  old  gentleman  to  take 
charge  of  my  pony,  and  was  responsible  for 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI. 

the  "family-tax,"  and  all  that  sort  of  thing. 
So  little  Mayouk  was  very  happy  and  vir- 
tuous, and  I  was  very  virtuous  and  proud. 

When  little  Mayouk  came  tripping,  at  dawn, 
from  the  tank  among  the  mangoes  at  the 
.turn  of  the  Pagoda  road — barefoot  and  with 
glancing  ankles ;  her  raven  hair  twisted  in 
a  barbaric  top-knot ;  the  pendulous  lobes  of  her 
ears  jeweled  with  young  lilies ;  the  "  bare 
possibility"  of  a  dainty  bosom  peeping  over 
the  top  of  her  engi ;  her  right  leg,  nut-brown 
and  springy,  showing  to  mid-thigh  where  her 
loonghee  opened  as  she  stept  out  smartly ;  her 
lips  brightly  parted  for  sherbet-draughts  of  the 
early  air ;  her  teeth  fairly  flashing,  innocent  of 
betel ;  her  form  erect  and  swaying ;  her  head 
thrown  proudly  back,  and  crowned,  like  Hebe's, 
with  a  brimming  jar:  at  such  times  little 
Mayouk  was  the  sweetest  heathen  unconverted, 

She  was  a  famous  story-teller,  animated  and 
eloquent,  with  an  expressive  countenance  and 

• 

impressive  gestures.  As  she  related  the  hor- 
rors and  the  marvels  of  the  three  days'  bom- 
bardment, with  Chittagong  between  us  to  in- 
terpret, she  was  altogether  charming. 


236  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

She  told  how,  when  she  was  a  little  bazaar- 
girl  and  sold  rice,  the  naked  soldiers  came  to 
her  begging  handfuls  to  keep  them  from  starv- 
ing ;  how,  when  the  air  was  all  alight  with 
thunder-balls  that  cried  "  woon,  woon,"  and 
fire-snakes  (rockets)  that  flew  through  the  night 
and  bit  the  head  of  Shway-Dagoung,  and  when 
women  and  children  clung  to  each  other  scream- 
ing in  the  dark,  with,  a  post  in  the  midst  of 
them  to  keep  a  family  together,  their  faces 
turned  in  an  agony  of  wonder  and  fear  to  the 
Great  Dagon — then  the  very  soldiers  they  had 
fed,  came  and  stript  them  naked  to  search 
in  the  hems  of  their  garments  for  rubies ;  and 
how,  when  they  fled  through  the  fiery  storm 
to  hide  under  the  terrace  of  Shway-Dagoung, 
she  bore  her  blind  grandfather  on  her  back. 

Little  Mayouk  was  a  good  investment.  When 
I  left  Rangoon  forever,  she  cried,  and  begged 
me  to  take  her  silver  spittoon  for  a  keepsake ; 
;md  she  promised  to  be  a  good  girl,  and  send 
an  offering  to  the  Pagoda  every  hew  moon. 


OR,    UP    AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  237 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

MY     ADVENTURE     AT     PEGU. 

ONE  day  a  message  came  down  from  the 
Myosugi,  or  head  man  of  the  friendly  people 
who  inhabited  the  interior  town  of  Pegu,  stat- 
ing that  they  had  been  attacked  by  a  superior 
force  of  Burmese,  driven  from  their  homes,  and 
compelled  to  take  refuge  in  the  jungle. 

The  Peguans  are  naturally  a  brave  race,  en- 
tertaining a  bitter  hereditary  hatred  for  the  ag- 
gressive'Burmese,  always  armed  against  them, 
always  warring  with  them  on  continually  recur- 
ring pretexts,  and  always  disposed  to  join  with 
any  force  hostile  to  them.  They,  therefore,  in- 
formed the  General,  that  if  he  would  send  a 
small  party  of  British  troops  to  their  aid,  they 
would  attack  and  retake  the  place.  Meantime 
their  families  were  in  the  jungle  suffering  great 
privation  and  exposure,  their  households  scat- 
tered, and  their  property  destroyed. 

The  town  of  Pegu — city  of  the  great  pagoda 


238  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

Shway-Madoo,  the  Golden  Supreme — lies  in  a 
beautiful  valley,  one  of  the  very  few  in  that 
country  which  are  watered  throughout  the  dry 
season,  and  the  one  upon  which  the  people 
depend,  for  the  most  part,  for  their  supplies  of 
rice. 

Accordingly  the  General  determined  to  send 
a  force  to  aid  these  poor  people,  and  ordered 
the  Phlegethon  to  repair  to  the  place  imme- 
diately, with — in  addition  to  her  own  crew — a 
detachment  of  Bengal  (Sepoy)  rifles,  numbering 
about  a  hundred  and  fifty,  a  small  party  of 
marines  from  the  frigate  Fox  (Commodore  Lam- 
bert's flag-ship),  and  a  company  of  sappers  and 
miners,  in  case  of  the  necessity  arising  of 
throwing  up  field-works,  should  we  not  suc- 
ceed in  taking  the  town  in  the  first  assault. 

One  morning,  about  five  o'clock,  when  we 
were  within  twenty  miles  of  Pegu,  the  steamer 
got  aground  and  stuck  fast.  Finding  that  there 
was  no  prospect  of  getting  nearer  with  her,  as 
the  river  was  very  low,  it  was  determined  to 
send  the  force  up  in  the  boats.  The  steamer 
not  being  large  enough  to  hold  all  the  men,  we 
had  been  towing  astern  the  launch  and  two 


OB,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      239 

cutters  of  the  Fox  filled  with  sailors  and  ma- 
rines; and  these,  with  our  own  three  cutters, 
were  sufficient  to  convey  our  men  to  the  at- 
tack. 

We  started  soon  after  day-break,  and  pulled 
up  between  the  high  banks  of  the  river,  making 
our  way  past  the  Burmese  villages  that,  at 
short  intervals,  occupied  the  shores — the  men 
all  well  armed,  and  three  surgeons,  of  whom  I 
was  one,  in  the  boats. 

We  were  all  on  the  alert,  expecting  an  at- 
tack every  moment,  as  we  went  up  with  the 
"flood-tide,  which  runs  in  the  Pegu  like  a  mill- 
race.  Soon  we  began  to  hear  the  native  war- 
gongs  beating  in  every  direction;  and  the 
distant  cry  of  warriors  giving  the  alarm — a 
guttural,  monotonous  hoo-hoo — was  baijed  on 
every  side. 

This  lugubrious  warning  was  more  like  the 
baying  of  countless  dogs  than  any  other  civil- 
ized noise,  and  we  knew  that  its  object  was  to 
gather  a  force  to  intercept  us,  or,  at  all  events, 
to  strengthen  the  defense  of  the  town  of  Pegu. 
Occasionally,  however,  we  passed  a  Karen  vil- 
lage where  the  inhabitants  were  friendly.  Only 


240  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

women,  and  children,  and  old  men  were  left  in 
these  places,  and  they  saluted  us  joyfully  with 
shouts  and  waving  of  white  cloths,  dancing  and 
running  down  to  the  river  bank  in  crowds, 
pointing  up  the  stream,  and  hurrying  us  on  to 
the  town,  which  they  hoped  we  would  take. 
The  higher  up  we  got,  the  louder  grew  the 
alarm  ;  the  gongs  became  as  innumerable  as 
the  voices  of  runners  and  scouts  carrying  on 
the  warning,  and  the  whole  produced  a  melan- 
choly harmony,  now  like  the  sighing  of  the 
wind,  now  like  the  dying  away  of  thunder. 

All  this  time  we  were  exposed  to  the  in- 
tensest  heat  of  a  tropical  sun,  a  heat  such  as 
is  experienced  nowhere  but  in  Burmah ;  for, 
whatever  may  be  the  indications  of  the  ther- 
mometer, heat  is  not  felt  in  any  other  spot  on 
earth  as  it  is  in  the  low,  flat  lands  along  the 
delta  of  the  Irrawaddi.  It  has  a  peculiarly  de- 
pressing effect ;  it  makes  you  faint ;  it  seems  to 
steam  and  stew  your  head,  and  you  find  your- 
self bending  under  it  as  under  a  great  and 
growing  weight.  We  had  no  awnings  over  the 
boats,  and  most  of  us  were  dressed  in  thick 
cloth  uniform.  I  wore  a  heavy  cloth  navy-cap 


OB,    UP   AND    DOWN   THE   IRKAWADDI.  241 

— the  regulation  cap  of  the  Company — an  un- 
dress blue  cloth  frock-coat,  trowsers  of  the 
same  material,  and,  in  a  belt  at  my  waist,  a 
sword  and  a  pair  of  heavy  ship's  pistols.  Very 
soon  after  the  sun  rose  I  had  begun  to  experi- 
ence the  wilting  influence  of  his  rays,  and,  as 
he  mounted  higher  and  higher,  rapidly  acquir- 
ing strength,  I  was  fast  becoming  sick.  At 
first  I  was  seized  with  a  slight  fit  of  vomiting ; 
then  my  mind  became  confused.  For  a  mo- 
ment I  would  forget  where  I  was,  but  only  for 
a  moment ;  the  next  I  would  recover  my  recol- 
lection. I  had  a  sense  of  dried  peas  with  hot 
water  poured  upon  them,  swelling  in  my  skull ; 
I  became  violently  excited,  raved,  said  I  don't 
know  what  to  the  men  around  me,  seized  one, 
thinking  he  was  about  to  attack  me — and  then 
fell  over  on  my  face  in  the  bottom  of  the  boat 
— coup  de  soleil ! 

How  long  I  remained  insensible  I  have  never 
known ;  but  my  first  consciousness  was  of  lying 
over  the  side  of  the  boat,  with  a  sailor  dipping 
up  water  in  his  hat  and  pouring  it  over  my 
head.  My  clothes  were  loosened  as  much  as 
possible,  and  saturated  with  water.  I  recog- 


242  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

nized  some  of  the  officers,  particularly  an 
assistant-surgeon  of  the  "  18th  Royal  Irish,'' 
my  intimate  friend,  and  was  more  or  less 
conscious  from  that  time  that  I  was  in  a  re- 
mote spot,  and  on  a  dangerous  expedition, 
although  I  did  not  recollect  the  nature  of  the 
enterprise  nor  even  the  name  of  the  countiy. 
In  recognizing  the  officers,  I  could  not  recall 
their  connection  with  the  events  then  recur- 
ring. I  heard  the  beating  of  the  tomtoms 
along  the  land ;  I  heard  the  same  multitudinous 
hoo-hooing,  baying,  wailing,  and  it  filled  me 
with  irrepressible  horror  at  times,  while  at 
others  it  excited  me  to  madness. 

By  degrees  I  became  more  quiet,  and,  as  soon 
as  it  was  safe  to  do  so,  I  was  removed  from  the 
cutter  to  a  large  Burmese  rice-boat,  housed  over 
with  mats  and  capable  of  containing  from  a 
hundred  to  a  hundred  and  fifty  persons.  This 
floating  house  had  windows  and  doors,  and  had 
been  fitted  up  with  hospital  traps  of  every  sort 
— a  complete  surgeon's  and  apothecary's  outfit. 
Here  I  was  laid  upon  a  doolee,  stripped,  and 
water  poured  on  me  by  the  bucketful,  especially 
over  my  head  and  breast.  The  doolee  was 


OE,    UP    AND    DOWN    THE   IRRAWADDI.  243 

stretched  in  the  middle  of  the  boat,  between  the 
doors  and  windows.  Occasionally,  I  relapsed 
into  insensibility,  but  under  the  medical  treat- 
ment, which  was  vigorous  and  pertinacious,  I 
recovered  sufficiently,  every  now  and  then,  to 
recognize  the  faces  and  voices  of  the  two  medi- 
cal officers  who  had  kindly  remained  in  charge 
of  me,  as  well. as  the  (jloolee-bearers — half-naked 
Hindoos,  who  belonged  to  the  hospital  depart- 
ment— and  a  cabin-boy  of  the  frigate  Fox,  a 
handsome,  spirited  little  fellow  of  fourteen  or 
thereabouts,  who  had  been  permitted  to  ac- 
company us  for  the  purpose  of  witnessing  an 
action. 

I  had  scarcely  recovered  my  consciousness 
sufficiently  to  understand  where  I  was  and 
what  had  happened,  when  a  message  arrived 
from  Capt.  Tarleton — great-grandson,  by-the- 
by,  of  the  troublesome  Tarleton  of  our  Revolu- 
tionary war,  and  a  dashing  leader — command- 
ing these  medical  officers  to  join  immediately 
their  respective  detachments,  and  to  leave  me 
in  the  best  care  they  could  provide.  Accord- 
ingly, they  asked  whether  they  could  safely 
leave  me  alone,  relying  upon  my  sense  and 


244  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ;    - 

experience  to  do  that  for  myself  which  there 
would  be  no  one  to  do  for  me  in  their  absence. 
I  urged  them  to  go. 

Shortly  after  they  left — it  seemed  to  me  not 
more  than  half  an  hour — the  little  boy,  of 
whom  I  have  spoken,  approached  the  side  of 
the  doolee,  and,  while  bathing  me  with  a 
sponge,  giving  me  water  to  drink,  and  chang- 
ing the  mustard-poultices,  told  me  where  we 
were.  He  said  this  hospital-boat  had  been 
moored  on  the  side  opposite  the  town,  under  a 
high  bank,  where  there  were  only  jungle  and 
the  ruins  of  a  burnt  village  a  few  hundred 
yards  off.  He  assured  me  that  I  had  no  cause 
for  alarm  ;  that  we  were  perfectly  safe  ;  that 
the  officers  had  explained  to  him  that  the  boat 
had  been  moored  there  for  safety,  because  there 
were  no  Burmese  on  that  side,  and  that,  in  a 
very  short  time,  they  would  rejoin  us. 

My  excitement  was  thus  partially  allayed,  and 
I  became  comparatively  calm ;  still,  that  horrible 
banging  of  gongs,  mingled  with  the  rattling  of 
musketry — for  our  troops  were  then  storming 
the  place — and  the  occasional  discharge  of  the 
twelve-pounders  we  had  brought  up  in  our 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  245 

boats,  were,  at  times,  frightful  in  their  effect 
upon  me,  and  it  was  with  great  difficulty  that 
I  could  master  the  impulse  to  leap  into  the 
water  and  hurry  toward  the  scene  of  action. 
All  these  sounds  seemed  to  go  through  and 
through  my  head.  The  effect  of  the  coup  de 
soleil  on  my  sense  of  hearing  was,  to  intensify 
it  beyond  endurance.  If  one  of  those  guns  had 
been  fired  close  by  my  ear,  it  could  scarcely 
have  produced  an  effect  more  shocking  than  it 
did  at  the  distance  of  more  than  a  mile. 

How  long  the  engagement  lasted,  it  is,  of 
course,  impossible  for  me,  under  circumstances 
of  such  confusion  and  even  delirium,  to  re- 
member ;  but  presently  there  was  a  pause ; 
not  a  gong  was  to  be  heard ;  that  dismal  slogan 
was  no  longer  to  be  caught ;  the  artillery  and 
musketry  were  still ;  all  was  perfect  silence. 
The  doolee-bearers  were  squatting  around  on 
their  haunches,  and  one  or  two  of  them  had 
lighted  hubble-bubbles. 

The  boy  went  to  the  door,  and,  presently 
returning,  whispered  to  me,  seeming  anxious 
to  communicate  something  important ;  but, 
in  my  condition  then,  I  could  not  under- 


246  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

stand  him,  and  hardly  gave  him  my  attention. 
Then  there  was  a  stir  among  the  coolies — a 
quick  expression  of  alarm ;  they  laid  down  their 
hubble-bubbles,  and  went  to  the  windows  on 
the  side  next  the  bank.  Immediately  they 
rushed  back  in  great  confusion  and  terror, 
crying:  "  Burmee,  Burmee  man;  Sahib,  Sahib, 
Burmee  man  !" 

The  boy  again  went  to  the  door,  and,  after 
reconnoitering,  returned  and  informed  me  that 
a  large  force  of  Burmese  were  gathering  on  the 
bank  over  the  boat ;  and,  as  he  spoke,  I  could 
hear  their  shouts.  They  had  come  from  below, 
probably,  to  assist  their  friends,  but  had  taken 
such  care  to  keep  at  a  safe  distance  from  our 
men,  that  they  had  blundered  upon  this  boat 
in  its  exposed  and  helpless  situation.  There 
was  hardly  an  appreciable  interval  between  the 
announcement  of  their  presence  and  the  dis- 
charge of  their  muskets.  The  roof  of  the  boat 
was  quickly  perforated  in  every  direction,  and 
bullets  whistled  about  the  bed  ;  they  struck 
the  timbers  over  my  head,  and  by  my  side, 
and,  more  than  once,  struck  the  bed  itself. 

With  a  scream  of  terror,  the  doolee-bearers 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.       247 

leapt  into  the  water,  and  then  I  was  alone 
with  the  boy.  For  a  minute  or  two,  there 
was  a  pause  in  the  firing,  the  attention  of  the 
Burmese  being  distracted  by  the  panic  of  the 
Hindoos  ;  but  it  was  immediately  resumed,  this 
time  directed  upon  the  swimming  coolies. 

Now,  remember  that  I  was  stark  naked,  in- 
tensely excited  (except  at  blessed  moments  of 
insensibility),  in  a  high  state  of  cerebral  exalta- 
tion, reckless  of  danger,  possessed  by  a  sort  of 
devil  resembling  mania  a  potu  in  all  its  pheno- 
mena. The  little  boy,  now  my  only  companion, 
preserving  wonderful  self-possession  and  calm- 
ness of  demeanor,  came  tome,  seized  me  with 
both  hands,  and  shook  me  hard,  as  if  to  wake 
me.  He  cried :  "  Get  up,  sir  ;  get  up,  sir  ;  110 
time  to  lose  now  !"  and  asked  me  if  I  could 
swim.  I  answered,  "  Yes,"  he  all  the  time 
dragging  over  my  arms  and  legs  a  pair  of  pilot- 
cloth  trowsers  and  a  pea-jacket,  after  which  he 
led  me — almost  carrying  me,  feeble  as  I  was — 
to  the  side  of  the  boat  furthest  from  the  Bur- 
mese, who,  probably  on  hearing  his  exclama- 
tions, had  resumed  their  firing,  and  were  rapid- 
ly drilling  the  roof,  but  still  afraid  to  come 


248  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

down  upon  the  boat,  perhaps  suspecting  an 
ambush. 

He  led  me  to  the  door,  and  pointed  to  where, 
some  five  or  six  hundred  yards  up  the  stream, 
our  boats  were  aground,  in  charge  of  seven  or 
eight  men,  under  command  of  a  midshipman. 
Remember,  now,  that  all  our  force  was  engaged 
at  the  town  of  Pegu  (but  how  far  off,  or  in 
what  direction  that  lay,  I  knew  not  then);  that 
there  had  been  only  a  pause  in  their  firing, 
which  by  this  time  was  resumed  with  increased 
rattle  of  musketry  and  roar  of  cannon. 

Pointing  to  the  boats,  the  boy  asked  me  if  P 
could  swim  so  far.  I  replied,  "  Yes,"  and  asked 
him  if  he  also  could.  He  said,  "Yes."  I  then 
plunged  into  the  river,  and  struck  out  in  the 
direction  of  the  boats,  bidding  him  follow  close 
behind  me.  I  imagined  at  the  time,  though 
now  I  know  it  to  have  been  but  imagination, 
that  I  heard  him  leap  in  after  me,  and  I  con- 
tinued to  fancy,  not  only  that  I  heard  him 
striking  out  and  blowing  the  water,  as  swim- 
mers do,  but  that  I  even  saw  him;  and  I  spoke 
to  him  frequently,  believing  him  to  be  at  my 
side. 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRKAWADDI.      249 

The  Burmese,  perceiving  me  as  I  made 
the  plunge,  instantly  redoubled  their  fire,  and 
bullets  fell  thickly  around  me.  I  could  hear 
them  hiss  close  by  my  head  and  back,  pelting 
the  water  like  nuts  thrown  upon  the  surface  by 
the  handful.  Fortunately,  the  tide  was  in  my 
favor,  and  I  swam  rapidly,  being  at  all  times 
an  expert  swimmer.  Now  I  seemed  to  recover 
my  presence  of  mind,  and  to  have  the  balance 
of  my  nerves  restored.  I  became  perfectly 
calm,  unalarmed — master  of  myself  in  every 
respect — with  more  self-possession  and  a  cooler 
comprehension  of  the  circumstances  surround- 
ing me  than  I  had  ever  had  before  in  all  my 
life :  nor  can  I  refer  all  of  this  to  other  than 
almost  supernatural  influences,  though,  of 
course,  something  is  to  be  attributed  to  the 
cooling  agency  of  the  water. 

I  let  my  body  down  into  the  stream  as  low 
as  possible,  so  as  to  expose  only  the  back  of 
my  head,  thus  making  my  human  target  for 
the  bullets  of  my  hunters  as  small  as  I  could, 
and  as  low  also ;  for  I  was  well  aware,  from 
precious  experience  acquired  in  a  busy  cam- 
paign, that  they  fire  very  high,  holding  the 
11* 


250  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

stocks  of  their  muskets  under  their  armpits, 
and  not  against  their  shoulders,  as  we  do  ;  be- 
sides, their  fire-arms  are  of  the  most  wretched 
description,  and  every  man  makes  his  own 
powder.  Their  balls,  therefore,  generally  passed 
over  my  head,  and  fell  into  the  water,  a  little 
beyond  them. 

I  had  no  fear  at  any  moment ;  a  strange  and 
omnipotent  faith  in  fate  took  possession  of  me ; 
I  did  not  even  take  the  trouble  to  make  up  my 
mind  that  I  should  escape.  I  literally  had  no 
idea  that  it  was  a  possible  thing  for  me  to  be 
shot  then.  Yet,  when  I  had  almost  reached 
the  boats,  I  was  seized  with  extreme  faintness — 
whether  from  the  reaction  of  hope,  inspired  by 
the  proximity  of  my  friends,  depriving  me  of 
the  strength  and  courage  of  despair  and  rage,  or 
from  what  other  cause  I  know  not ;  I  became 
suddenly  sick,  and  felt  myself  rapidly  sinking. 
I  could  make  but  a  few  strokes  more,  holding 
up  my  hand,  and  crying  for  help.  The  smallest 
of  the  boats,  our  third  cutter,  with  a  solitary 
man  in  it,  came  to  my  rescue,  and,  just  as  my 
strength  was  finally  failing,  he  dragged  me  out 
of  the  water.  As  I  fell  over  between  the  seats, 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      251 

gasping  and  exliausted  with  the  shock  of  relief 
and  safety,  but  by  no  means  insensible — on  the 
contrary  fully  appreciating  my  position — that 
man  said  to  me :  "I  think  it's  all  up  with  us 
now,  sir ;  but  you  stand  by  me,  and  I'll  stand 
by  you:  we're  two  lonesome  Yankees  here." 

He  then  sculled  his  boat  back  to  the  others — 
the  Burmese,  meantime,  having  suspended  their 
fire  in  the  direction  of  the  hospital-boat.  You 
must  not  forget  the  boy,  whom  J  had  quite  for- 
gotten, and  did  not  again  remember  until  I  saw 
him,  some  days  later.  When  we  reached  the 
other  boats,  I  was  lifted  into  the  large  launch 
of  the  Fox  under  the  awning  (all  the  boats  were 
now  covered),  and  laid  in  the  bottom,  with  my 
head  on  an  ammunition-box. 

The  midshipman  in  command  of  the  party 
hastened  to  assure  me  that  I  was  safe ;  and, 
finding  me  in  a  state  of  great  mental  excite- 
ment, endeavored  to  soothe  me.  While  he  was 
thus  kindly  employed,  I  became  insensible  for 
a  time.  These  intervals  of  unconsciousness 
must  have  been  comparatively  brief,  as  the 
whole  affair  occupied  only  the  middle  of  a  day. 
I  was  roused  by  another  alarm,  another  rapid 


252  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

firing  of  musketry,  and  again  bullets  whistled 
near  me  ;  I  could  see  them  penetrate  the  can- 
vas awning  of  our  boat,  making  little  round 
holes,  which  let  in  the  hateful  sunshine  upon 
my  face.  Several  struck  the  seats,  some  hit  the 
sides  of  the  boat,  and  some  fell  into  the  water 
close  by ;  but,  very  strangely,  no  man  was  hurt 
as  yet,  although  all  were  together  in  this  launch. 

Here,  as  lower  down,  the  bank  was  very  high 
and  steep.  The  Burmese,  who  had  driven  me 
out  of  the  hospital-boat,  had  followed  me 
hither ;  they  were  still  immediately  over  us,  so 
that,  in  firing,  it  was  necessary  for  our  men  to 
elevate  their  muskets  almost  perpendicularly. 

Possessed  with  the  energy  of  despair,  unable 
to  get  their  boats  afloat — as  there  were  not 
enough  of  them  for  some  to  defend  the  others 
while  they  worked — and  seeing  no  hope  of 
communicating  with  our  friends  on  shore,  who 
were  engaged  in  the  assault  of  the  town,  my 
companions  were  fairly  brought  to  bay,  and  de- 
termined to  die  hard.  One  man  after  another, 
as  he  loaded  his  musket,  would  run  out  to  the 
bow,  "  spot"  his  "  John  Burmah,"  and  bring 
him  down. 


OR,    UP  AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  253 

The  Burmese,  who  were  arrant  cowards, 
would  creep  cautiously  forward,  shoot,  and 
run — firing  very  hastily  their  wretched  mus- 
kets, with  the  most  uncertain  aim  of  the  worst 
of  all  possible  marksmen;  so  that,  while  our 
shots  were  never  wasted,  theirs  had,  as  yet, 
done  no  harm.  In  a  little  while,  however,  one 
of  our  men  received  a  ball  in  his  shoulder — a 
flesh-wound  merely,  from  which  he  soon  re- 
covered, but  which  disabled  him  for  the  time. 

Soon  after  that,  my  countryman — he  who  had 
come  to  my  rescue  when  I  was  sinking — loaded 
his  musket  under  the  awning,  occupied,  in  his 
turn,  the  bow  of  the  boat,  which  had  just  been 
vacated  by  another,  and  taking  deliberate  aim 
at  a  Burman — who,  in  that  ridiculous  spirit  of 
bravado,  so  familiar  to  all  who  have  had  deal- 
ings with  the  tattooed  rascals,  was  performing 
a  war-dance,  making  grimaces,  and  gesticulat- 
ing with  all  sorts  of  insulting  antics — shot  him 
dead.  Immediately  a  dozen  muskets  replied — 
fired  straight  at  him.  Quietly  walking  back  to 
where  I  was  lying,  in  the  bottom  of  the  boat, 
and  laying  down  his  musket  carefully,  as  if  he 
had  merely  paused  to  rest,  or  to  speak  to  me, 


254  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

he  sat  down  by  my  side.  Never  suspecting  that 
he  was  hurt,  I  scarcely  noticed  him,  being  oc- 
cupied with  watching  for  the  holes,  which  still, 
from  time  to  time,  the  bullets  would  make  in 
the  awning.  Presently,  he  laid  his  hand  softly 
upon  mine,  and  said:  "  If  you  ever  go  to  Bos- 
ton, tell  my  mother,  sir."  "  Why,  nonsense, 
man,"  I  exclaimed,  "you're  not  hurt !"  I  stared 
in  his  face  ;  death  was  there,  and  his  eyes  were 
closing  He  made  no  reply,  but,  still  clasp- 
ing my  hand,  fell  back  and  died. 

After  this,  there  was  a  brief  pause  in  the 
fight ;  the  Burmese  ceased  firing,  as  if  to  de- 
liberate on  some  change  of  tactics — possibly 
with  the  intention  of  coming  down  on  us  all 
together.  That  was  the  fear  we  should  have 
entertained  all  the  while,  had  we  had  time  to 
reflect.  Now,  we  saw  the  danger  plainly,  and 
that  something  must  be  done  promptly,  to  pre- 
vent them  from  taking  us  by  a  coup  de  main. 

The  midshipman,  in  a  few  hurried  words, 
asked  me  to  suggest  something.  I  advised  him 
to  load  and  fire  the  twelve-pounder  in  the  bow. 
He  objected:  "But  you  see  my  fire  will  be 
harmlessly  wasted  in  the  bank,  far  beneath 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  TUB  IRRAWADDI.      255 

their  feet,  and  that,  once  perceived,  may  bring 
them  down  on  us.  It's  only  the  sight  of  this 
piece,  and  their  recollection  of  the  noise  it 
makes,  and  the  havoc  some  of  them  have  seen 
done  by  guns  just  like  it,  that  keeps  them 
where  they  are." 

"But,"  I  argued,  "we  can't  stay  here  for- 
ever ;  our  friends  know  nothing  of  our  danger ; 
the  Burmese  will  presently  discover  that  your 
piece  is  harmless,  from  the  very  fact  of  your 
not  using  it ;  we  are  only  postponing  the  mo- 
ment of  our  destruction.  Fire  the  gun — load 
it  heavily  with  grape,  and  fire  it  into  the  bank, 
with  all  the  elevation  you  can  get.  Thus  you 
may  terrify  them,  as  well  by  the  noise  as  by 
the  cutting  up  of  the  earth  beneath  their  feet ; 
at  the  same  time  you  will  have  the  advantage 
of  communicating  with  our  friends  by  the  only 
means  available." 

He  did  as  I  advised ;  but,  after  the  first  few 
discharges,  the  Burmese  would  run  up  while 
our  men  were  loading  the  gun,  and  fire  upon 
them.  So  we  lost  another — not  killed,  but 
disabled.  Then  our  fellows  were  panic-stricken ; 
they  saw  they  could  not  hold  their  ground  till 


256  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

friends  came  up ;  they  were  wavering,  one  by 
one ;  they  began  to  hang  back,  and  to  look 
around  for  help — when  men,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, begin  to  look  away  from  the  foe, 
the  game  is  always  up;  they  never  will  look 
back  again.  The  midshipman  suddenly  cried  : 
"  I've  done-  my  duty ;  every  man  for  himself;" 
and  plunged  into  the  river:  the  whole  party 
followed  him.  Neither  of  the  wounded  men 
was  seriously  injured,  and  they  were,  of  course, 
so  occupied  with  the  urgent  danger  as  to  forget 
their  wounds  ;  they  struck  out  lustily. 

Still  prostrate,  and  weak  almost  to  death,  I 
dragged  myself  heavily  to  the  side  of  the  boat, 
and  let  my  body  roll  over  into  the  stream,  like 
a  log,  under  the  full  gaze  of  the  Burmese,  who, 
when  they  saw  our  men  take  to  the  water,  of 
course  opened  fire  on  each  black  head  as  it 
swam  away.  I  came  last,  and  formed  a  solitary 
target  for  them,  as  I  was  still  in  the  stream 
after  all  of  my  late  companions  were  up  and 
off  into  the  jungle.  I  employed  the  same  tac- 
tics as  before,  and  with  the  same  success — 
letting  my  body  low  down  into  the  water,  and 
swimming  in  a  straight  line  directly  away  from 


OK,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  257 

them,  so  as  to  present  a  mark  which  it  would 
have  been  difficult  for  any  but  an  expert  sharp- 
shooter to  hit. 

Being  thus  repeatedly  exposed  to  the  most 
fearful  danger,  and  seeming  to  have  death 
and  devils  crowding  upon  me  from  every 
side,  I  became  frantic  with  downright  rage. 
When  my  feet  touched  the  mud  I  did  not  rise, 
but,  keeping  under  water,  dragged  myself  along 
on  my  belly,  till  I  got  to  the  bank.  Then 
clambering  up,  I  stood  on  the  top  of  it,  and 
shook  my  fists  at  the  savages,  and  cursed  them. 
Next  I  sat  deliberately  down  on  the  ground, 
and  exulted  for  a  whtle  in  watching  their  balls 
fall  short  of  me.  After  this  I  arose,  and  wan- 
dered into  the  jungle. 

What  was  the  scene  ? — a  jungle  in  the  heart 
of  Burmah,  where,  perhaps,  no  white  man  had 
ever  been  before  that  day  ;  the  only  passage  a 
tiger-trail — a  path  very  much  like  those  made 
by  the  negroes  through  our  southern  corn-fields 
by  cutting  away  a  narrow  lane  of  stalks.  By 
this,  no  doubt  (though  tiger  signs  were  fresh 
upon  it),  our  men  had  made  their  way ;  but 
where  to  look  for  them?  That  dismal  howl 


258  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

still  reached  my  ears  ;  I  could  even  hear  cannon 
— but  could  not,  if  I  had  tried,  have  told  in 
what  direction  they  were. 

Don't  forget,  now,  that  I  had  lost  all  but  a 
confused  sense  of  something  dangerous  that 
was  near,  something  saving  that  was  distant. 
I  had  no  recollection  of  details ;  I  could  not 
tell  on  which  side  of  the  river  our  little  army 
was ;  I  had  never  seen  the  town  of  Pegu  ;  I 
had  forgotten  all  topography,  all  points  of  time, 
nor  have  I  ever  clearly  recollected  them  since. 
It  all  seemed  to  me  like  a  dream  of  some- 
thing horrible,  that  had  happened  years  before. 
Even  what  was  presentlyoccurring  around  me 
seemed  something  that  I  was  remembering  re- 
motely, rather  than  the  event  of  the  moment. 
At  the  same  time  that  I  was  conscious  of  the 
scene  before  me,  and  of  my  progress  over  the 
ground,  I  was  in  the  maudlin  state  of  a  drunken 
man,  reckless  of  danger ;  any  number  of  Bur- 
mese directly  in  my  path,  I  should  probably 
have  met,  then,  with  a  laugh ;  I  was  in  the 
mood  to  laugh — did  laugh. 

Night  would  before  very  long  be  upon  me, 
but  I  cared  not  for  that;  I  could  have  laid 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  259 

down  in  the  tiger-trail  and  slept — because  I 
was  crazy.  And  yet  I  was  not  crazy ;  for  I 
knew  there  were  enemies,  and  I  hated  them ; 
I  knew  there  was  danger,  and  I  was  cunning. 
To  a  degree,  I  was  delirious  ;  and  yet  some  of 
my  faculties  were  intensified,  like  my  physical 
senses.  I  was  delirious  only  in  not  compre- 
hending the  danger  to  the  extent  of  dying  with 
fear. 

Recollect  that  I  was  bare-headed  and  bare- 
footed ;  my  jacket  was  open,  and  my  breast 
exposed  to  the  sun  ;  I  had  dragged  myself 
through  the  black,  oozy  slime  of  an  Indian 
river  full  of  crocodiles ;  I  was  ugly  as  Satan, 
from  head  to  foot,  and  like  him  in  many  other 
respects.  In  this  plight  I  stumbled  forward, 
through  the  jungle. 

Presently  a  form  started  up  from  between 
the  canes  and  stood  before  me,  across  the  path. 
I  thought  it  was  that  of  a  Burman — an  armed 
enemy — and  my  first  feeling  was  one  of  levity. 
The  next  instant  I  recognized  the  blue  jacket 
of  one  of  our  own  men.  He  belonged  to  the 
boat's  party,  had  escaped,  and  hid  himself 
there,  and  (Heaven  knows  how !)  had  recog- 


260  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON J 

nized  me.  When  his  hand  grasped  one  of  mine, 
and  I  put  the  other  upon  his  shoulder,  and 
looked  into  his  familiar  face — when  I  saw  in 
him  a  companion  and  a  friend,  and  we  two 
stood  together  there,  in  that  place  of  wits'  ends 
and  vague  fears — I  became  aware  of  my  situ- 
ation with  a  horrible  shock,  and  fell  to  the 
ground,  sensible,  at  the  same  time,  of  wretched- 
ness and  of  relief,  of  danger  and  of  protection — 
of  one  as  much  as  the  other.  Then  he  raised 
me,  and  made  me  realize  again,  as  well  as  he 
could,  who  he  was,  and  where  I  was ;  and  he 
lifted  me  up,  and  carried  me  forward,  a  part 
of  the  while  on  his  back  and  sometimes  in  his 
arms,  stopping,  now  and  then,  to  rest. 

Then,  at  last — and  God  knows,  God  only 
knows  how  it  all  was ! — I  do  remember  being 
with  a  party  of  our  men ;  I  do  remember  some 
Sepoys  in  British  uniform ;  I  do  remember 
officers,  soldiers,  sailors,  friendly  Peguans.  At 
this  moment  I  vividly  recall  such  a  group,  and 
I  recollect  standing  in  the  midst  of  them.  Then, 
I  remember,  there  was  a  sudden  stir,  and  this 
party  broke  away  from  me  amid  rattling  of 
musketry  and  the  shouts  of  officers,  and  the 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  261 

next  instant  I  was  in  the  water  again.  I,  too, 
had  partaken  of  the  alarm,  but,  not  understand- 
ing its  nature,  had  rushed  down  the  bank,  and 
into  the  river,  and  was  striking  out  once  more 
for  the  very  shore  whence  I  had  just  been 
driven.  I  swam  across  and  clambered  up  the 
bank. 

Is  there  anything  picturesquely  frightful  in 
story — anything  in  German  legend  of  solitary 
men  beset  by  fiends,  and  beasts  of  hideous 
aspect  and  horrible  cries — that  will  do  to 
describe  this  by?  Think  of  the  knight  in 
Undine,  as  he  rides  through  the  haunted  for- 
est, waylaid  by  Calibanic  shapes;  or  take  the 
lady  in  Comus,  put  a  pea-jacket  and  regulation- 
trowsers  on  her,  and  you  have  me. 

Everything  proper  to  a  safe  man's  mind  had 
left  me ;  nothing  remained  but  cunning  and 
insensible  courage.  I  had  never  once  thought 
of  praying,  of  pleading  for  mercy ;  I  had  never 
once  asked  forgiveness  for  my  sins ;  I  had  not 
given  a  thought  to  my  family  or  friends  ;  I 
was  busy  only  with  the  damnable  inventions, 
the  hellish  traps,  set  for  me,  and  I  remember 
the  Bothwell-like  resistance  I  felt — I  feel  it 


262  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON  ; 

now.  Then  I  speculated :  "  Perhaps  by  wan- 
dering along  this  bank  I  can  reach  some  friend- 
ly village;  perhaps  by  following  this  river  I 
shall  find  human  habitations,  where  I  shall  be 
received  hospitably."  I  was  even  possessed 
with  a  delirious  hope  that  I  should  reach  Ran- 
goon— which  now  and  then  I  would  clearly 
recollect — by  pursuing  the  stream  down  to  the 
bay. 

So,  groping  along  in  what  I  supposed  to  be 
that  direction,  I  had  gone  perhaps  a  mile  or 
two,  when  I  saw  a  small  boat — such  as  is 
called  a  sampan  in  China  ;  I  have  forgotten  the 
Burmese  name — lying  close  under  the  bank. 
It  was  covered  with  mats,  arched  like  the  awn- 
ing of  a  western  wagon :  the  poorest  fishermen 
of  Burmah  house  their  families  in  such  craft,  as 
the  Chinese  do.  I  came  upon  it  suddenly  ;  on 
the  bank,  immediately  above  it,  but  below  me, 
stood  two  natives — tall,  stalwart  fellows,  tat- 
tooed from  their  navels  to  their  ankles — with 
paddles  in  their  hands,  but  not  armed. 

Now,  observe  that  the  Burmese,  both  men 
and  women,  have  their  ears  perforated  with 
very  large  holes  (indeed,  a  circular  piece  seems 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN    THE    IRRAWADDI.  263 

to  be  punched  out  of  the  lobe),  in  which  the 
women  wear  gold,  brass,  or  copper  ornaments, 
sometimes  of  great  weight — not  in  the  shape 
of  rings,  but  cylindrical — and  the  men  carry 
cigars;  indeed,  by  means  of  this  hole,  they 
make  the  ear  a  sort  of  rack  to  hang  many  little 
things  upon.  All  the  hostile  Burmese  I  had 
seen  during  the  campaign  invariably  wore  tiny 
red  flags  in  these  holes  ;  while  all  the  Peguans, 
and  other  friendly  natives,  wore  white  ones. 
But  these  two  men  had  neither ;  they  appeared 
to  be  harmless  fishermen  (perhaps  Karens), 
who  were  glad  to  hide  themselves  away,  and 
had  not  yet  been  found  by  any  of  the  Burmese 
recruiting  officials,  and  pricked  into  the  service 
at  the  point  of  the  lance. 

When  I  came  upon  them,  they  uttered  an  ex- 
clamation of  great  alarm,  and  rushed  towards 
the  river ;  but  when  they  got  to  the  bank  they 
stopped,  looked  at  each  other  and  at  me^  spoke 
together,  stood  transfixed  in  wonder.  I  had 
come  suddenly  from  the  side  opposite  to  that  on 
which  the  British  were ;  they  could  make  out 
neither  my  race  nor  my  color.  My  hue  was 
that  of  the  river-mud,  but  my  hair  was  differ- 


264  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

ent  from  theirs,  and  my  dress  also.  If  they  had 
ever  seen  an  Englishman,  they  would,  by  the 
latter,  have  taken  me  for  one.  But  what  could 
they  understand  from  my  making  straight  up  to 
them,  and  instantly  laying  my  hands  one  upon 
a  shoulder  of  each?  I  had  no  arms  ;  they  had 
been  taken  from  me  in  the  cutter  before  I  was 
removed  to  the  hospital-boat.  With  the 
savage's  quick  appreciation  of  danger,  they  at 
once  perceived  that  I  was  helpless  in  that 
respect ;  but  they  knew  not  how  to  regard  me 
in  others. 

My  head,  if  an  enemy's,  was  worth  five  hun- 
dred rupees  to  them  ;  but,  then,  if  it  should  hap- 
pen to  belong  to  a  friendly  Englishman,  it  was 
worth  a  thousand  such  heads  as  theirs — if  I 
were  an  enemy,  five  hundred  rupees  was  the 
royal  reward  offered  for  it ;  but  if  a  friend,  they 
and  their  families  and  kindred  would  have  died 
a  death  for  every  hair  they  hurt.  So,  puzzled, 
they  stood  with  their  paddles  in  their  hands, 
making  no  demonstration  of  anger  or  of  fear  ; 
they  stared  like  children  at  me,  but  did  not 
move. 

For  a  few  moments  I  held  them  thus,  look- 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRUAWADDI.      265 

ing  them  straight  in  the  face.  Then,  to  make 
myself  understood  as  well  as  I  could,  I  pointed 
to  the  boat,  and,  touching  my  forehead  and 
breast  with  my  clasped  hands — as  is  the  cus- 
tom in  Burmah  to  express  respect  or  gratitude, 
or  to  ask  a  favor— I  appealed  to  them.  I  laid 
the  palms  of  my  hands  flat  together,  and  said : 
"  Yangoon,  Yangoon,  twa,  two, ;  bucJcsheesh,  bucJc- 
shccsh  do;  burra  bucksheesh  do" — a  jargon  of 
mixed  Burmese  and  Hindostanee,  both  shock- 
ingly broken,  meaning,  "  I  will  give  you  a 
sight  of  presents  if  you  will  take  me  in  that 
boat  to  Rangoon." 

After  consulting  together  with  hurried  ges- 
tures, they  led  me,  gently  but  firmly,  one  by 
one  wrist,  and  the  other  by  the  other,  down 
into  the  boat,  and,  placing  me  in  the  stern, 
indicated  to  me  to  hold  on  by  the  top  of  the 
sampan,  which  came  up  to  my  waist.  They 
then  got  into  the  bow,  and  pushed  off  with 
their  paddles  to  the  middle  of  the  stream. 

As  I  watched  their  movements,  I  was  occu- 
pied with  but  one  thought,  and  that  was  never 
to  turn  my  back  to  them.  All  my  intelligence, 

all  my  cunning,  all  that  I  was  capable  of  as  a 
12 


266  THE    GOLDEN    DAQON ; 

human  being,  was  concentrated  in  that,  "don't 
turn  your  back  on  them."  I  had  no  arms,  not 
even  a  stick,  nothing  but  my  nails  and  teeth. 
So  I  watched  them  impishly. 

I  could  still  hear  noises — a  confused  clangor 
came  from  a  distance  to  my  ears  like  something 
that  one  dreams  of;  but  it  was  real  noise — a  noise 
of  a  far  country  ;  of  tigers,  and  elephants,  and 
monkeys,  and  wild  dogs  ;  of  gods  and  a  tattooed 
people ;  of  crocodiles  and  great  pagodas — all 
audible  heathendom  conglomerated  into  one 
diabolical  howl !  I  cannot  describe  it ;  I  can- 
not analyze  it  as  a  noise ;  I  cannot  tell  you 
what  particular  big  gun  it  sounded  like,  how 
now  it  clattered  like  an  omnipresent  tin-pan, 
or  this  time  "  went  off"  like  a  park  of  sixty- 
pounders  ;  but  I  can  tell  you  that  it  sounded 
like  all  "  Afric's  sunny  fountains  and  India's 
coral  strand" — drunk ;  I  hope  you  can  under- 
stand that. 

I  had  let  myself  somehow  into  the  idea 
that  my  Charons  were  going  to  Rangoon. 
For  one  instant  I  turned  my  eyes  away 
from  their  faces  to  the  scene  before  me ;  the 
next,  the  bow  of  the  boat  was  driven  fast  into 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDL  267 

the  mud  of  the  opposite  shore.  They  leaped 
to  land  and  ran  up  the  bank,  and  from  that 
hour  I  never  saw  them  again  ;  they  left  me 
there  alone. 

A  large  tree  grew  out  of  the  bank  near  the 
spot,  and  its  roots  hung  over  and  ran  down  to 
the  water  ;  it  was  a  solitary  tree ;  all  the  rest 
was  cane.  I  could  see  the  black  posts,  with  a 
few  bamboos  still  standing,  of  a  house — not 
very  near,  but  at  no  great  distance ;  and,  here 
and  there,  others  like  them,  as  if  the  ruins  of 
a  village  from  which  the  inhabitants  had  been 
driven  by  robbers.  One  often  sees  in  Burmah 
three  or  four  houses  together,  thus  charred  and 
half  fallen — all  that  is  left  by  the  dacoits  of 
some  little  town. 

From,  the  moment  the  men  disappeared  I 
forgot  their  existence ;  to  lose  sight  of  them 
was  to  lose  all  recollection  of  them,  care  for 
them,  fear  of  them.  I  never  once  contemplated 
the  possibility  of  their  returning  with  compan- 
ions, although,  had  I  been  in  a  condition  to 
reflect,  I  must  have  known  that  they  would 
inevitably  pursue  an  object  of  such  wonder,  to 
discover  whence  it  came  and  what  it  meant. 


268  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

But  then  my  mind  would  follow  up  no  idea; 
I  was  alive  only  to  the  instantaneous  event. 
I  had  the  momentary  instinct  of  danger ;  with 
it  came  the  momentary  instinct  of  resistance. 
For  that,  my  cunning  was  beyond  all  cultiva- 
tion :  it  was  the  animal's  cunning — memory, 
only  so  far  as  the  present  occasion  called  up 
memory  to  my  protection. 

I  thought,  "What  shall  I  do  next?"  It  was 
growing  late,  and,  I  fancied,  even  dark — was  I 
to  remain  there  all  night  ?  I  looked  at  the 
jungle — I  looked  at  the  river;  at  once  I  filled 
the  one  with  reptiles,  and  the  other  with  fierce 
beasts.  Was  I  to  lie  there  and  die  ?  Then  rage 
seized  me ;  rage,  rage,  rage,  wholly  possessed 
me — a  determination  to  conquer  all  this,  and 
to  come  out  of  it  safe  and  triumphant.  When 
I  asked  myself  the  question,  "  Must  I  die 
here  ?"  it  was  only  to  answer,  "  No,"  almost 
with  a  shout.  Then  I  thought  of  a  weapon — 
where  I  was,  there  was  not  even  a  paddle. 

I  crept  under  the  cover  of  the  boat  to  look 
for  a  knife.  A  woman  and  a  child  !  Under 
the  sampan  was  a  woman  with  a  little 
baby! 


OB,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      269 

She  crouched  in  her  death-fear ;  she  had 
made  no  sign,  betrayed  no  curiosity.  The 
Burmese  woman  is  too  well  trained  to  make 
her  existence  apparent  in  the  presence  of  men, 
unless  she  is  called  for.  There  she  had  been 
hiding,  stifling  her  baby  between  her  breasts 
to  smother  its  small  cry,  and,  like  myself, 
wondering  what  would  come  next.  I  crept 
in  on  my  hands  and  knees,  and  we  squatted 
face  to  face.  To  me,  she  was  an  angel — the 
realization  of  all  that  is  beautiful  in  heaven. 
.To  her,  I  was  hell — a  black,  fiendish  thing,  of 
which  she  had  a  superstitious  horror  as  fright- 
ful as  it  was  vague.  I  was  a  something  that 
was  cruel,  something  that  killed,  something 
that  fired  great  guns  and  made  infernal  noises 
and  ghastly  gashes,  something  that,  wherever 
it  went,  spread  death  and  flames  before  it,  and 
left  ashes  and  dead  bodies  behind. 

For  a  minute,  we  stared  at  each  other.  The 
child  uttered  a  feeble  wail ;  she  hugged  its, 
face  closer  to  her  bosom,  and  choked  out  the 
cry ;  she  held  it  fast  with  both  her  hands  and 
shrank  away  from  me  as  far  as  the  boat  would 
permit.  She  was  naked  to  the  waist — Bur- 


270  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

mese  women  generally  are,  after  they  have 
borne  children. 

The  remembrance  I  have  of  that  woman 
now,  is  the  remembrance  that  a  jaded  and 
wounded  man  must  have  of  a  cool  pillow,  a 
cup  of  water,  and  a  tender  hand. 

I  put  my  palms  together  with  a  gesture  of 
respect  and  tenderness,  and  cried :  "  Yay,  yay, 
?/«?/," — "  Water,  water,  water."  As  soon  as 
she  heard  my  voice,  she  seemed  to  be  pos- 
sessed with  a  new  horror,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  imagine  that  some  conflict  was  about 
to  occur  between  us — that  something  was  to 
be  threatened  on  my  part,  and  to  be  feared  on 
hers.  So,  turning  up  the  palm  of  her  hand, 
she  pressed  me  vehemently  to  go  away,  and 
iterated:  "  Twa,  twa,  twa," — "go,  go,  go,"  as 
fast  as  she  could  utter  it.  I  repeated  my  ges- 
ture ;  this  time  prostrating  my  forehead  to  the 
floor  before  her,  I  made  suppliant  salaams, 
>after  the  Burmese  fashion,  and  cried  again : 
"  Yay,  yay,  yay"  At  last  she  gave  me  to 
drink ;  turning  to  her  side,  she  took  from  an 
earthen  vessel  some  water  in  a  small  lacquered 
cup,  and  handed  it  to  me — still  clasping  her 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IEEAWADDI.      271 

child  to  her  breast — and,  on  my  eagerly 
snatching  it,  shrank  back  immediately. 

You  remember  the  story  of  Mungo  Park, 
and  the  African  woman  who  brought  him 
milk  to  drink,  and  sang  to  him  the  song  of 
the  "  poor  white  man,"  who  had  no  mother, 
and  "  no  wife  to  grind  his  corn  ?" 

That  water  restored  me,  filled  me  with  new 
confidence,  made  me  quite  calm  and  even 
thoughtful  again ;  and  so,  seeing  the  great 
horror  with  which  I  inspired  the  woman,  I  left 
her  and  returned  to  my  place  outside.  I  took 
with  me  a  carved  rice-stick  which  I  found  in 
a  pot,  such  as  is  used  throughout  that  country 
to  stir  rice  with  while  it  is  cooking.  I  waited 
with  this  in  my  hand,  I  should  never  be  able  to 
guess  how  long,  or  how  short  a  time — it  might 
have  been  hours,  it  might  have  been  but  a  few 
minutes. 

For  some  time  I  had  heard  no  guns  or 
cries ;  all  had  been  quiet.  But  now  there 
came  from  a  distance  the  shouts  of  a  number 
of  men  ;  they  rose  on  the  air  and  grew  louder 
and  louder,  solm  separating,  so  that  I  could 
distinguish  individual  voices.  At  first,  there 


272  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

was  the  same  dismal  baying  I  have  already 
described ;  next  came  human  articulations, 
which,  however,  I  could  not  understand. 
Then  there  was  a  crash  in  the  jungle,  and 
some  eighty  or  ninety  men — as  was  afterwards 
estimated — burst  through  the  canes,  and  stop- 
ped very  near  the  boat.  They  were  in  hot 
haste ;  I  could  not  tell  whether  they  were 
pursuing  or  pursued.  All  were  armed ;  and 
the  tattooed  devils  wore  red  flags  in  their  ears, 
every  man  ofthem.  They  stood  startled  at  the 
water's  edge,  and  wondered  at  me.  Breath- 
less as  they  were,  they  stopped  and  reflected. 
Some  turned  to  each  other  and  talked  hur- 
riedly together  ;  some  brandished  their  wea- 
pons, and  looked  as  if  about  to  use  them. 

Thus  we  stood  ;  I  alone  in  the  boat,  brandish- 
ing the  stick ;  my  hair  matted  with  mud,  which 
by  this  time  had  dried ;  my  pea-jacket  wide 
open,  and  my  exposed  breast  as  black  as  my 
face ;  unarmed — a  white  man  and  a  stranger ;  to 
many  of  them  a  new  creature  altogether,  even 
if  I  had  presented  my  ordinary  appearance ; 
but  in  that  aspect,  to  all  of  them,  a  thing  of 
peculiar  dread,  operating  upon  their  supersti- 


OB,    UP  AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  273 

tious  terrors.  For  the  simple  reason  that  they 
could  not  account  for  me,  they  were  awfully 
afraid  of  me. 

That  cunning,  which  I  have  described  to 
you  as  being  all  that  was  left  to  me,  again 
filled  me  with  a  sense  of  power  and  safety, 
which  it  is  quite  impossible  to  explain  to  you 
now.  I  felt  that  I  could  outwit  them,  that 
I  could  seize  the  thousand  doubts  by  which 
they  were  perplexed,  and  on  the  strength  of 
which  I  was  sure  they  would  not  dare  to  touch 
me.  They  could  not  know  whether  I  was  friend 
or  foe.  Why  should  I  be  thus  helpless  and  alone, 
if  I  were  of  the  number  of  their  victorious 
enemies?  There  were  Englishmen  about  the 
person  of  their  king ;  their  officers  of  highest 
rank  were  foreign  ;  there  were  Englishmen  (so 
it  was  afterward  reported)  in  that  very  town, 
fighting  for  its  defense. 

Three  men  stepped  in  front,  and  a  few  feet 
in  advance  of  the  party.  One  of  them  had  on 
a  red  jacket,  with  gold  or  yellow  stripes — it 
might  have  been  a  marine's  jacket  which  he  had 
bought  or  stolen.  He  wore,  also,  the  gilt 

helmet,  which  distinguishes  their  officers,  and 
12* 


274  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

a  red  breech-cloth  was  folded  voluminously 
about  his  thighs.  He  was  tattooed  from  the 
navel  to  the  ankles,  and  his  complexion  was 
much  lighter  than  the  rest,  as  is  usual  with 
the  men  of  rank,  who  are  protected  from  the 
sun  by  umbrellas  carried  over  their  heads  when 
they  go  out.  This  man,  also,  had  red  flags  in 
his  ears ;  he  carried  a  musket  and  a  dhar. 

His  two  companions  seemed  to  be  subordi- 
nates ;  they  were  rude,  and  more  savage-look- 
ing than  he ;  their  complexions  were  darker, 
and  they  wore  on  their  heads  only  a  bit  of 
red  cloth.  Both  were  armed  with  dhars  and 
lances,  the  latter  having  strips  of  the  same  red 
stuff  twisted  round  them,  a  foot  or  so  from  the 
point,  to  form  streamers. 

The  herd  behind  stood  still,  while  these  three 
seemed  to  be  taking  my  case  into  consideration. 
They  would  cautiously  approach  me,  and  then 
retire  and  consult ;  this  manoeuvre  they  re- 
peated frequently.  Finding,  then,  that  it  was 
necessary  for  me  to  act  promptly,  in  order  to 
turn  their  hesitancy  to  my  advantage,  I  almost 
prayed  for  a  hint — and  immediately  the  idea  of 
playing  the  madman  flashed  upon  me.  It 


OE,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      275 

seemed  to  come  from  Heaven.  I  knew  that 
savages  set  up  madmen  in  their  temples  and 
worship  them,  accepting  their  ravings  as 
oracles.  I  knew  that  if  I  could  make  them 
believe  that  I  was  mad,  I  should  not  only  be 
protected  by  them,  but  regarded  as  something 
almost  divine. 

So  I  beckoned  to  them  to  come  to  me, 
dancing  as  I  did  so,  yelling,  shouting,  and 
pulling  my  hair;  taking  off  my  jacket,  I  threw 
it  down  upon  the  deck  of  the  boat  and  stamped 
on  it ;  I  capered,  I  made  strange  noises,  and 
I  sang — all  the  while  beckoning  them  to 
approach. 

The  chief  came  first  of  all.  He  walked 
toward  me  very  slowly  and  cautiously,  halting 
every  few  steps.  But  I  sharply  commanded 
him  to  come  on  board,  and  he  came;  so  we* 
stood  together  on  the  deck  of  the  little  boat. 
I  laid  my  hands  upon  his  shoulders  as  I  had 
placed  them  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  two 
boatmen.  He  stood  perfectly  erect. 

Now  here  was  the  scratch  ;  I  knew  that  I 
must  make  him  crouch — the  Burman  comes 
down  on  his  haunches  to  every  superior, 


276  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON  ; 

whether  of  his  own  or  another  race ;  until  that 
man  crouched,  my  life  was  not  worth  a  curse. 
The  success  of  my  experiment  depended  on 
that ;  he  must  do  it.  I  pressed  him  down  by 
main  force  to  the  deck,  stamped  my  feet,  and 
made  faces  at  him.  Down  he  went,  at  last, 
squatting  low  on  his  haunches  and  holding  his 
hands  together  in  the  true  Burmese  style. 

His  dhar  was  suspended  by  a  red  cord  which 
passed  over  his  right  shoulder  and  under  his  left 
arm,  and  he  still  held  his  musket  at  his  side, 
with  the  butt  of  it  on  the  deck.  Stooping  down, 
but  carefully  avoiding  every  attitude  resembling 
his  own,  I  took  hold  of  the  gun,  and  we  held 
it  together — he  with  his  right  hand,  and  I  with 
mine.  Then  I  signed  to  him  to  give  it  up  to 
me.  The  "twa"  and  the  "?/«?/,"  I  had  used 
before,  were  the  only  Burmese  words  I  could 
remember.  I  knew  not  the  word  for  "  give," 
but  I  did  know  the  gesture  for  "I  will  take  ;" 
so  shaking  the  musket  violently,  and  angrily 
threatening  him  with  my  voice,  and  with 
"faces,"  I  made  him  understand  that  much, 
and  he  surrendered  his  gun.  I  laid  it  down  on 
the  deck  and  put  my  foot  upon  it.  Then  re- 


OR,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IKRAWADDI.  277 

peating  the  same  pantomime,  I  next  pulled  the 
red  cord  by  which  his  dhar  was  suspended  over 
his  head,  and  held  that  also. 

All  that  may  pass  for  courage,  but  it  was 
nothing  of  the  kind.  A  glimmer  of  the  truth 
had  but  to  creep  across  the  minds  of  these 
men — they  had  but  to  guess  my  artifice — they 
had  but  to  suspect  that  I  might,  after  all,  be 
no  madman,  but  an  enemy — and  quick  death 
would  be  delightful  to  the  fate  that  I  must 
suffer.  Intellectual  mastery  of  the  occasion 
was  all  that  could  serve  my  turn — cunning,  and 
nothing  but  cunning.  I  had  no  friend  nor 
weapon — I  had  even  thrown  away  my  stick — 
when  that  man  gave  up  his  dhar  to  me.  Then, 
standing  erect  before  him,  in  the  attitude  of  a 
master,  I  told  him  to  twah,  and  he  twahed. 

And  I  actually  had  a  musket  and  a  sword !  I 
cannot  tell  you  with  what  exulting  joy  I  looked 
on  them,  and  wondered  if  all  God's  beautiful 
earth  was  enough  to  buy  them  from  me. 

Now  I  am  naturally  not  a  brave  man ;  I  am 
too  excitable.  I  have  not  coolness,  "nerve;" 
I  have  only  the  passion  of  courage.  But  in  that 
moment,  I  had  the  heart  of  the  wounded  war- 


278  THE    GOLDEN   DAGON; 

rior  who  only  asks  for  a  wall  to  set  his  back 
to,  and  a  weapon.  I  had  been  hunted,  baited, 
it  seemed  to  me,  the  whole  day  long;  when 
these  dogs  were  not  present  in  person,  their 
phantoms  were  there,  ten  times  more  devilish 
than  they.  All  the  hatred  in  my  heart  was 
uppermost,  and  with  that  sword  in  my  hand,  I 
felt  capable  of  hacking  the  whole  pack  in 
pieces. 

This  will  explain  to  you  the  appearance 
of  intrepidity;  I  believe  the  arrantest  coward 
that  ever  trembled  would  have  felt  just  as 
defiant,  on  that  spot  and  in  that  predicament, 
as  I  did.  Not  only  do  I  believe  that  no  unde- 
veloped courage  of  mine  had  anything  to  do 
with  it,  but  I  am  sure  that  the  insanity  of  fear 
was  the  whole  secret  of  my  apparent  heroism. 
I  mean  that  imagination,  inspired  by  fear,  had 
exalted  me  for  the  time — made  me  superior  to 
the  occasion ;  I  saw  more  in  the  weapon  than 
was  really  in  it. 

Now  I  went  through  the  same  pantomime 
with  the  two  others,  only  they  approached  me 
crouching  lower  and  lower  from  the  first,  until, 
when  they  reached  me,  they  were  already 


OR,    UP   AND   DOWN   THE   IRRAWADDI.  279 

quite  down  on  their  haunches.  Perhaps,  be- 
cause, being  too  suddenly  reassured,  I  was  off 
my  guard  for  a  moment,  I  squatted  down  be- 
side them  in  order  to  get  closer  to  their  faces. 
It  was  a  dangerous  mistake.  Unmeaning,  even 
absurd  as  it  may  appear  to  you,  that  posture  is 
everything  to  a  Burman  ;  for  him  it  has  grave 
significance  in  religion  and  social  intercourse. 
But  I  did  so  stoop,  and  one  of  them — I  re- 
member their  faces  perfectly — was  a  stupid- 
looking  fellow,  with  a  rather  good-natured  ex- 
pression, if  he  had  any  at  all  ;  the  other  was  a 
dark,  scarred,  scowling  ruffian,  who  looked 
altogether  dacoit-like — a  practiced  brigand,  and 
a  born  cut-throat. 

Now,  mind  you,  this  is  the  impression  they 
left  upon  my  memory,  or  my  imagination  : 
I  don't  mean  to  insist  that  they  did  really 
look  so ;  for,  likely  enough,  if  I  could  see 
them  now,  I  should  be  ashamed  of  the  injus- 
tice I  have  done  them  both.  I  caught  their 
colors  from  my  fancy  and  my  fears.  You  have 
only  the  facts  that  they  were  two  dangerous 
men,  and  that  they  were  there.  The  picture 
they  impressed  upon  my  mind  is,  no  doubt,  a 


280  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

daguerreotype  of  my  mental  condition  then ; 
just  as  I  believed  I  heard  the  boy  in  the  water, 
and  spoke  to  him,  although  he  was  far  off. 

But  there  were  the  two  men,  squatting  side 
by  side.  I  seized  the  dhar  of  the  foolish-look- 
ing fellow,  and  tried  to  pull  the  cord  which 
held  it,  over  his  head.  Both  had  laid  down 
their  lances ;  their  dhars  were  sheathed,  and 
their  hands  pressed  together.  When  I  made 
the  attempt  on  my  foolish  friend's  sword,  he 
smiled — I  remember  how — a  silly,  childish, 
Indian  smile,  like  that  of  a  slave  whose  master 
condescends  to  jest  with  him.  But  his  ugly 
comrade  did  not  smile — far  otherwise.  He  laid 
his  hand  upon  the  other's  dhar  as  I  was  in  the 
act  of  removing  it,  and,  holding  it  fast,  shook 
his  head  in  a  threatening  way,  as  if,  less  super- 
stitious and  more  cunning  than  the  rest,  he  had 
already  half  detected  me. 

"  He's  trying  you" — the  thought  came  to  me 
with  such  suddenness  and  force  as  to  produce 
the  impression  of  a  warning,  actually  whispered 
in  my  ear.  He  was  trying  me.  He  knew  that 
if  I  were  really  mad,  this  attempt  to  thwart  me 
would  be  of  no  avail ;  whereas,  if  I  were  merely 


OR,   UP   AND   DOWN    THE   IRRAWADDI.  281 

dissembling,  I  should  probably  be  frightened, 
or,  at  least,  confused. 

Whether  all  that  did  really  pass  through 
his  mind,  God  only  knows;  but,  certainly, 
I  made  my  sagacity  his.  I  was  careful 
to  betray  no  astonishment,  no  alarm ;  but, 
without  agitation,  stooping  down,  I  took  up 
the  musket  which  the  first  man  had  left,  very 
coolly  and  deliberately  placed  the  muzzle  to 
his  chin — and  pointed  to  the  dhar.  He  in- 
stantly and  eagerly  jerked  off  his  own  dhar,  and 
laid  it  at  my  feet.  Then,  leaving  their  lances, 
both  twahed  when  I  told  them,  and  went  back 
to  their  party. 

They  had  hardly  left,  when  a  remote  noise 
of  many  feet  and  voices  grew  into  a  regular 
rush  and  an  Irish  yell.  A  party  of  wild  bog- 
trotters  of  the  "80th"  came  down  upon  these 
Burmese,  fired  volleys  right  and  left,  and  then 
charged  them.  That  moment  was  to  me  the 
most  dangerous  in  the  whole  affair,  because 
these  fellows  would  not  recognize  me — would 
not  believe  in  me.  They  would  not  discover 
in  time  that  I  was  one  of  their  comrades,  who 
had  got  into  such  an  infernal  plight.  At  first 


282  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

I  thought  of  hallooing  to  them  ;  but  in  another 
moment  I  was  hiding  myself  under  the  cover 
of  the  boat.  I  felt  that  if  I  but  showed  just 
one  hair  of  my  head,  there  would  be  fifty  bul- 
lets through  me  in  a  flash.  They  would  fire,  of 
course,  at  any  head  emerging  from  that  boat. 

Good  God !  how  long  it  was !  the  poor 
woman,  paralyzed  with  fear,  crouching  oppo- 
site me,  and  I,  shutting  out  the  light  from  my 
eyes,  awaiting  a  horrible  death  at  the  hands 
of  my  own  friends — death vafter  all. 

But  there  was  an  end  of  it  by-and-by.  Whe- 
ther they  heard  the  recall,  or  had  been  ordered 
to  return  immediately,  I  know  not ;  but  they 
went  back  over  the  bank,  and  I  could  hear  the 
glorious  brogue,  as  they  hurrahed  and  shouted 
to  each  other.  As  the  last  man  disappeared,  I 
ran  after  him,  dragged  myself  up  the  bank,  and 
cried:  "Help,  help,  boys!"  as  loud  as  I  could; 
some  of  them  returned,  thinking,  perhaps,  that 
one  of  the  party  was  hurt. 

When  the  sergeant — who  was  behind  the 
rest,  and,  therefore,  the  first  to  hear  my  cry, 
and  turn — saw  me,  he  presented  his  bayonet 
close  to  my  head.  I  was  down  then,  and 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IRRAWADDI.      283 

quite  helpless.  He  asked  me  "  who  the  hell" 
I  was,  and  where  I  came  from.  They  at  first 
took  me  for  a  renegade,  and  all  came  crowd- 
ing around  me.  But  one  recognized  my 
navy-blue  trowsers,  and  said :  "  Why,  don't 
you  see  he  is  one  of  the  ship's  men ;"  and 
another,  who,  the  day  before,  as  we  were 
steaming  up  the  river,  had  come  to  me  for  some 
tobacco,  said :  "  I  know  him — that's  the  doctor, 
that's  the  doctor  of  the  ship.  Good  God ! 
where  did  he  come  from  ?"  Then  they  put  me 
into  a  doolee,  which  had  been  brought  with 
the  party,  and  carried  me  some  little  distance, 
where  I  found  myself  among  officers  and  per- 
sonal friends. 

One  circumstance  will  serve  to  show  the 
state  of  my  mind  at  this  time  :  As  I  lay  in  the 
doolee,  a  Burman  passed  by,  and,  although  he 
was  a  friend,  the  sight  of  him  excited  me  so, 
that  I  struggled  to  take  a  musket  from  a  soldier 
who  was  walking  by  the  side  of  the  litter,  to 
shoot  the  fellow  with.  My  rage  was  still  upon 
me.  It  was  singular  how  it  drove  off  even 
gratitude — the  brought-to-bay  feeling  would 
not  leave  me  yet. 


284  THE   GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

I  lay  then  on  the  porch  of  a  bamboo  house, 
with  my  friends  around  me,  and,  after  a  while, 
was  sufficiently  composed,  under  the  influence 
of  a  powerful  draught  given' me  by  one  of  the 
surgeons,  to  sleep  a  little.  Towards  dusk,  the 
place  being  fairly  taken,  the  Burmese  routed, 
and  the  Peguans  mingling  with  us  joyfully, 
Captain  Neblitt  determined  to  return  to  the 
ship  and  take  me  with  him.  We  started  down 
with  the  tide  in  two  boats — I  with  the  boat- 
swain and  eight  men  in  one,  and  the  captain, 
also  with  eight  men,  in  the  other. 

I  have  an  affectionate  remembrance  of  that 
boatswain  ;  his  name  was  Haswell,  or  Haslett, 
or  something  beginning  with  H,  and  sounding 
so  ;  and  he  was  one  of  our  best  men — cool,  very 
brave,  and  a  first-rate  gunner.  That  night,  and 
in  a  strange  scene,  he  told  me  that  he  was  an 
American  from  Fall  River,  Mass.  My  country- 
men in  the  Company's  service  were  under  the 
impression,  that  if  their  nativity  became  known, 
they  would  not  get  their  fair  share  of  prize- 
money.  And  so  when  the  men  were  gathered 
in  knots  on  the  forecastle-deck  and  around  the 
forward  gun,  talking  of  Yankees,  these  would 


OK,    UP   AND    DOWN    THE    IREAWADDI.  285 

often  chime  in  against  themselves.  That  the 
boatswain  was  a  good  man  is  shown  by* his 
having  been  intrusted  with  the  command  of 
this  boat,  to  take  her  through  an  enemy's 
country  at  night. 

When  we  started,  night  was  falling  rapidly, 
and  waiting  for  orders  from  the  captain,  who 
was  detained,  we  lost  the  best  part  of  the  tide. 
All  were  armed,  except  me  ;  I  was  still  without 
hat,  or  shoes,  or  shirt,  or  a  weapon.  We 
pulled  along  with  perfect  confidence  until  it 
was  quite  dark.  There  was  no  moon.  We 
knew  that  the  Burmese  were  scattered,  and 
were  not  likely  to  attack  us ;  but  as  the  dark- 
ness deepened,  there  came  over  us  the  gloom 
of  mystery,  and  an  indefinite  apprehension. 
The  men  fell  into  profound  silence,  but  pulled 
steadily  and  "  with  a  will,"  so  as  to  make  the 
most  of  the  tide. 

At  last  the  ebb  began  to  slack,  and  before 
we  had  accomplished  one-third  of  the  distance 
to  the  ship,  it  had  turned  and  set  flood  so  hard 
that  we  could  make  no  head  against  it,  and 
were  compelled  to  anchor.  Then  the  boat- 
swain told  his  men  to  lie  on  their  arms  and 


286  THE   GOLDEN   DAGON ; 

sleep  while  he  kept  watch.  He  lent  me  his 
boat-cloak  and  bade  me  sleep  also  ;  but  I  could 
not.  As  often  as  I  fell  into  a  doze  I  lived  the 
whole  horror  over  again. 

For  a  time  Haswell  sat  upright  and  silent, 
occasionally  laying  his  hand  on  me  warningly, 
as  if  to  say,  "I  hear  something."  After  a 
while  he  relaxed  his  vigilance  in  a  degree,  and 
leaned  over  to  talk  with  me  in  a  whisper.  It 
was  then  that  he  first  told  me  he  was  an 
American,  and  spoke  of  Shields,  our  comrade, 
who  was  killed.  I  could  fed  that  tears  were 
in  his  eyes.  He  said,  that  the  three  of  them 
(alluding  to  another  who  was  on  the  sick  list 
and  had  been  left  behind)  had  always  kept  an 
eye  on  me ;  for  I  was  then  a  somewhat  reckless 
person.  He  told  me,  with  a  certain  rough 
delicacy,  that  Shields  had  often  watched  me 
"  to  see  that  I  did  not  fall  into  trouble." 

But  Haswell  was  still  the  weather-eared  sailor, 
and  as  he  whispered  he  listened  all  the  while. 
Presently  we  heard  again  that  same  low  bay- 
ing ;  he  touched  me  quickly.  The  other  men 
still  slept.  The  sound  grew  louder  and  nearer. 
He  whispered  to  me,  "Burmese  boat — don't 


OK,    UP   AND   DOWN    THE   IREAWADDI.  287 

move !"  Then  cautiously  approaching  each 
man,  and  putting  his  hand  over  his  mouth,  he 
roused  him,  and  bade  him  take  up  his  arms. 

You  will  recollect  that  the  Burmese  war 
crews  have  not  oars  like  ours,  but  short  pad- 
dles, with  which  they  make  two  sharp,  per- 
pendicular plunges,  followed  by  an  interval  of 
pause.  They  utter,  in  concert,  a  kind  of  yelp, 
to  keep  stroke  together ;  and  although  the  stroke 
is  very  quick,  they  all  strike  the  water  at  the. 
same  instant  by  help  of  this  dismal  monotone. 
Their  boats  are  immensely  long,  sometimes 
holding  a  hundred  men,  who  sit  in  close  single 
files  along  the  sides  of  the  alligator-like  craft. 

Our  men  recognized  the  sound,  and  gathered 
their  arms  together  as  noiselessly  as  possible. 
Some  drew  their  cutlasses  and  laid  them  on 
the  seats  beside  them;  some  took  off  their 
jackets,  loosened  their  straps,  and  examined 
their  pistols.  The  question  with  us  then  was, 
would  the  Burmese  come  down  on  our  side 
of  the  stream,  or  on  the  other.  In  other  words, 
were  they  about  to  run  into  us,  or  to  pass  on 
the  other  side,  in  the  dark,  without  perceiving 
us?  There  were  only  eight  of  us,  and,  proba- 


288  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

bly,  not  less  than  eighty  of  them  ;  but  then  we 
were  waiting  for  them,  while  they  would  not 
see  us  till  they  felt  us.  We  were  well  armed 
and  active,  and  they  would  surely  believe  they 
had  fallen  into  a  swarm. 

The  tide  was  against  them;  but  Burmese 
boats  do  not  stay  for  that — they  are  con- 
structed with  an  expert  eye  to  those  racing 
rivers.  Being  so  long  and  sharp,  and  the 
paddles  dipping  perpendicularly,  they  can  be 
run  close  under  the  bank,  in  slack  water,  or 
a  counter  current.  So  the  tide,  which  com- 
pelled us  to  anchor,  presented  no  material  ob- 
stacle to  our  enemies. 

Thus,  we  lay  in  the  darkness — every  man 
with  both  hands  on  his  weapons,  ready  to  use 
them  the  next  moment.  There  were  no  more 
than  the  proper  complement  of  arms ;  but  the 
boatswain  drew  one  of  his  own  pistols  from  his 
belt,  and  laid  it  on  my  knee. 

They  did  pass  by  on  the  other  side  (the 
stream  was  very  narrow  there),  without  dis- 
covering us. 

I  will  not  enlarge  upon  the  scene.  Here  was 
our  little  party,  hidden  under  the  jungly  bank, 


OR,  UP  AND  DOWN  THE  IBRAWADDI.      289 

waiting  for  an  accident — heads  or  tails,  right  or 
left — to  decide  whether  or  not  we  should  sud- 
denly come  into  deadly  conflict  with  ten  times 
our  number  of  savages,  in  pitchy  darkness ;  and 
there  were  the  invisible  devils,  perfectly  un- 
conscious of  our  proximity,  iterating  their  mo- 
notonous war-note — so  near,  that  we  could 
almost  have  touched  them  with  our  oars. 
When  the  tide  turned  again,  the  captain  over- 
took us  ;  they  had  passed  him  in  the  same  way. 
The  little  English  boy  was  found  by  Tarle- 
ton  or  Neblitt,  on  the  bank,  very  near  where 
I  had  landed,  wandering  about  stark  naked,  and 
entirely  crazy,  with  little  lance  wounds,  mere 
scratches,  in  the  fleshy  parts  of  his  arms  and 
legs.  When  I  plunged  into  the  stream,  he 
paused  to  observe  what  would  happen.  When 
he  saw  how  they  fired  at  me,  he  was  afraid  to 
follow,  and  went  down  into  the  hold  of  the 
boat,  where  he  hid  himself  among  some  hos- 
pital traps.  On  taking  possession  of  the  boat, 
the  Burmese  rummaged  it  thoroughly,  in  search 
of  booty,  and  found  the  boy.  They  dragged 
him  out  from  among  the  doolees,  and  took 
him  on  deck,  where  they  played  with  him,  and 

lo 


290  THE    GOLDEN    DAGON ; 

tumbled  him  about,  felt  of  his  limbs,  wondered 
at  his  skin,  laughed  over  his  little  clothes,  and 
made  game  of  him  generally.  With  their  dhars, 
they  cut  off  locks  of  his  hair.  Then,  to  try  his 
courage,  they  stood  him  up  against  a  beam,  and 
threw  darts  at  him — slender,  armed  reeds,  be- 
tween arrows  and  lances ;  with  these  they 
grazed  the  skin  of  his  arms  and  legs.  At  last, 
the  boy  became  quite  maddened  with  fear,  and, 
suddenly  breaking  through  the  very  centre  of 
the  party,  jumped  into  the  river.  Swimming 
down  the  stream  with  the  tide,  he  finally 
landed  where  the  captain  found  him.  He  was 
taken  down  to  the  frigate,  where  he  eventually 
recovered. 

Poor  Shields !  A  ball  had  struck  the  top  of 
his  left  shoulder,  just  inside  the  collar-bone, 
and  severed  a  main  artery.  Although,  when 
we  fled,  we  left  his  body  in  the  boat,  which  the 
Burmese  took  possession  of  immediately — and 
although  so  high  a  price  was  set  on  British 
heads,  his  was  spared,  nor  had  the  slightest 
insult,  apparently,  been  offered  to  his  corpse. 
In  the  search  for  plunder,  hurried  in  momentary 
fear  of  our  return  or  of  a  surprise  from  some 


OK,    UP   AND   DOWN    THE   IRRAWADDI.  291 

other  quarter,  they  had  forgotten  their  human 
prize,  or  feared  to  seize  it.  Indeed,  their  hot 
haste  was  evident  in  the  fact  that  they  had  even 
left  the  flags  at  the  sterns  of  the  boats,  although 
they  had  made  away  with  the  camp-boxes  of 
the  officers — among  the  rest,  with  one,  contain- 
ing three  hundred  rupees,  brought  up  by  a  young 
ensign,  no  less  verdant  than  amorous,  who  had 
heard  of  the  charms  of  the  maidens  of  Pegu. 

Poor  Shields !  he  sleeps  in  his  loneliness  un- 
der the  shadow  of  the  Shway-Madoo,  and  the 
young  Yankee  sailor's  grave  was  watered  by 
tears  as  true  as  ever  eyes  let  fall.  In  Boston  I 
have  sought  in  vain  for  his  mother.  His  share 
of  prize-money  awaits  her  order,  in  the  office  of 
the  Superintendent  of  Marine,  at  Calcutta. 


After  that,  I  was  invalided  to  Calcutta, 
whence,  in  a  few  days,  I  sailed  for  home. 

When  last  I  heard  from  my  friends,  British 
and  Burmese,  on  the  Irrawaddi,  the  former 
were  erecting  an  electric  telegraph,  and  the 
latter  were  regilding  the  Golden  Dagon.  The 
Stagnant  Calm  was  stirred  as  though  an  angel 
had  troubled  it. 


APPENDIX, 


i. 

THE  GOLDEN  DAGON  IN  1590. 

— "  THEY  consume  many  canes,  likewise,  in 
making  of  their  Varellaes,  or  idol  temples, 
which  are  in  great  number,  both  great  and 
small.  They  be  made  round,  like  a  sugar-loaf; 
some  are  as  high  as  a  church,  very  broad  beneath  ; 
some  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  compass :  within 
they  be  all  earth,  done  about  with  stone. 

"  They  consume  in  these  Varellaes  great 
quantity  of  gold ;  for  that  they  be  all  gilded 
aloft,  and  many  of  them  from  the  top  to  the  bot- 
tom :  and  every  ten  or  twelve  years  they  must 
be  new  gilded,  because  the  rain  consumeth  off 
the  gold  :  for  they  stand  open  abroad.  If  they 
did  not  consume  their  gold  in  these  vanities,  it 
would  be  very  plentiful,  and  good,  and  cheap 
in  Pegu. 

"  About  two  days'  journey  from  Pegu,  there 
is  a  Varellae,  or  pagoda,  which  is  the  pilgrim- 
age of  the  Pegues :  it  is  called  Dagonne  (Da 
gong),  and  is  of  wonderful  bigness,  and  all 


294  APPENDIX. 

gilded  from  the  foot  to  the  top.  And  there  is 
a  house  by  it  wherein  the  tallipoies,  which  are 
the  priests,  do  preach.  This  house  is  fifty-five 
paces  in  length,  and  hath  three  parones  or 
walks  in  it,  and  forty  great  pillars,  gilded, 
which  stand  between  the  walks ;  and  it  is 
open  on  all  sides  with  a  number  of  small 
pillars,  which  be  likewise  gilded.  It  is  gilded 
with  gold  within  arid  without. 

"There  are  houses  very  fair  round  about  for 
the  pilgrims  to  lie  in,  and  many  goodly  houses 
for  the  tallipoies  to  preach  in,  which  are  full  of 
images,  both  of  men  and  women,  which  are 
gilded  over  with  gold.  It  is  the  fairest  place, 
as  I  suppose,  that  is  in  the  world  :  it  standeth 
very  high,  and  there  are  four  ways  to  it,  which 
all  along  are  set  with  trees  of  fruits,  in  such 
wise  that  a  man  may  go  in  the  shade  about 
two  miles  in  length.  And  when  their  feast- 
day  is,  a  man  can  hardly  pass,  by  water  or 
land,  for  the  great  press  of  people  :  for  they 
come  from  all  places  of  the  kingdom  of  Pegu 
thither  at  their  feast." — Ralph  Fitch,  a  London 
Merchant. 


APPENDIX.  295 

II. 

THE   KARENS, 

"  WHEN  I  first  came  to  this  coast,  the  Karens 
were  regarded  as  the  aborigines  of  the  country, 
but  they  were  probably,  in  reality,  the  last  peo- 
ple to  enter  it  among  the  various  tribes  that  the 
British  found  here,  when  they  took  possession 
of  the  provinces. 

"  They  regard  themselves  as  wanderers  from 
the  North,  and  one  of  their  traditions  states  that  a 
party  of  them  came  across  '  the  river  of  running 
sand,'  on  an  exploring  tour,  before  the  Shans 
were  established  at  Zimmay,  and  returned 
again.  The  crossing  of  the  '  river  of  running 
sand,'  is  regarded  as  having  been  an  arduous 
work.  They  understand  by  these  waters,  or 
river,  of  running  sand  (the  words  admit  of  either 
rendering),  an  immense  quicksand,  with  the 
sands  in  motion  like  the  waters  of  a  river.  The 
tradition  was  quite  unintelligible  to  me  until 
the  Journal  of  Fa-Hian,  the  Chinese  pilgrim, 
who  visited  India  about  the  fifth  century,  threw 
a  sun-beam  on  the  expression.  He  constantly 
designates  the  great  desert  north  of  Burmah, 
and  between  China  and  Thibet,  as  '  the  river  of 
sand ; '  and  in  the  Chinese  map  of  India,  a 


296  APPENDIX. 

branch  of  this  desert  is  seen  to  stretch  down 
south,  for  several  degrees  of  latitude,  and  then 
turn  and  run  westward  for  a  long  distance. 
This  desert  is  marked  '  quicksands.'  There  can, 
therefore,  scarcely  be  a  rational  doubt  that  this 
is  '  the  river  of  running  sand,'  which  their  an- 
cestors crossed  at  a  remote  period  before  Zim- 
may  was  founded. 

"  Tradition  further  states,  that  when  the 
Karen  nation  immigrated  to  this  country  they 
found  the  Shans,  contrary  to  their  expectation, 
dwelling  in  the  region  of  Zimmay.  Serica  and 
Sera,  and  the  river  Serus,  are  represented  by 
Ptolemy  as  in  the  region  north  of  Burmah  ;  and, 
from  incidental  notices  in  the  old  poetry  of  the 
Karens,  it  appears  that  there  was  a  country 
north  of  these  provinces,  known  to  them  in  anci- 
ent times,  by  the  name  of  Sairai.  One  stanza 
runs  thus : 

" '  The  waters  of  Sairai,  of  Sairai, 
The  country  of  Sairai,  of  Sairai — 
It  is  famous  for  the  frogs  that  are  there, 
It  is  famous  for  the  fish  that  are  there.' 

"  Malte  Brun,  on  the  authority  of  Marco  Polo, 
says : — '  The  country  of  Caride  is  the  south- 

•/  *' 

east  point  of  Thibet,  and  perhaps  the  country 
of  the  nation  of  the  Caraines,  which  is  spread 
over  Ava ;'  and  Teen — a  word  signifying  Heaven, 


APPENDIX.  297 

but  used  by  some  of  the  Chinese  to  signify  God 
— occurs  in  Karen  poetry,  as  the  name  of  the 
God  of  a  people  with  whom  they  were  formerly 
connected.  The  Karen  language  also  indicates 
a  connection  with  tribes  on  the  borders  of  Thi- 
bet. 

"  Besides  the  Khakyeens  north  of  Ava,  there 
are  known  to  be  two  distinct  tribes  of  Karens. 
One  tribe  call  themselves  '  Shos,'  but  are  called 
by  the  Sgaus,  '  Pwos,'  and  by  the  Burmese, 
'  Meetkhyeens,'  or,  '  Tailing  Karens.'  The 
other  tribe  call  themselves  Sgaus,  but  by  the 
Burmese  are  designated  '  Meelthos,'  or,  i  Bur- 
man  Karens.' 

"  To  these  some  add  the  Karenees,  or  Red 
Karens,  but  they  are  more  usually  regarded  as 
a  Shan  tribe.  Their  language,  from  Karen 
testimony,  and  from  the  examination  of  a  few 
words,  appears  not  to  be  so  nearly  related  to 
either  Pwo  or  Sgau  as  the  latter  are  to  each 
other ;  but  there  are  manifestly  many  roots  com- 
mon to  all  three,  as  in  Karen  and  Youngthu. 
The  Burmans  call  them  Red  Karens  from  a  por- 
tion of  their  dress  being  red ;  and  the  Karens 
call  them  Mannegpha,  or  Kidnappers,  from  their 
practice  of  kidnapping  their  neighbors  and  sell- 
ing them  into  slavery.  None  of  them  live  within 
the  boundaries  of  the  British  territories,  or  Bur- 

mah  proper,  nor  have  they  ever  been  visited 
13* 


298  APPENDIX. 

by  missionaries ;  but  Dr.  Richardson  traveled 
through  their  country  in  1837.  They  appear 
to  occupy  a  strip  of  land  in  the  valley  of  the 
Sal  ween,  between  Burmah  and  the  Shan  States. 
Dr.  Richardson  wrote  that  they  were  in  the 
lowest  state  of  civilization,  and  appeared  few 
in  number, — perhaps  as  numerous  as  the  Young- 
thus. 

"  The  Pwos  and  Sgaus  are  scattered  all  over 
the  Tenasserim  provinces,  the  southern  parts 
of  Burmah,  and  Arracan.  Their  languages, 
though  dialects  of  a  common  language,  and 
both  easily  acquired  when  one  has  been  mas- 
tered, are  sufficiently  distinct  to  make  a  Pwo 
unintelligible  to  a  Sgau,  and  a  Sgau  to  a  Pwo, 
unless  both  idioms  have  been  studied. 

"  The  Sgaus  are  remarkable  for  the  Scriptu- 
ral traditions  that  exist  among  them.  They 
have  traditions  of  the  creation,  the  temptation, 
the  fall,  and  the  dispersion  of  nations,  in  prose 
and  verse,  nearly  as  accurate  as  they  are  found 
in  the  Bible.  The  following  is  a  single  speci- 
men : 

"  '  Anciently,  God  commanded,  but  Satan  appeared  bringing 

destruction : 
Formerly  God  commanded,  but  Satan  appeared  deceiving 

unto  deaJJr. 
The  woman  E-u  and  the  man  Tha-nai  pleased  not  the  eye 

of  the  dragon, 


APPENDIX.  299 

The  persons  of  E-u  and  Tha-nai  pleased  not  the  mind  of 

the  dragon, 
The  dragon  looked  on  them, — the  dragon  beguiled  the 

woman  and  Tha-nai. 

"  '  How  is  this  said  to  have  happened  ? 
The  great  dragon  succeeded  in  deceiving — deceiving  unto 
death. 

"  '  How  do  they  say  it  was  done  ? 
A  yellow  fruit  took  the  great  dragon,  and  gave  to  the 

children  of  God. 
A  white  fruit  took  the  great  dragon,  and  gave  to  the 

daughter  and  son  of  God. 

"  '  They  transgressed  the  commands  of  God,  and  God  turned 
his  face  from  them. 

They  transgressed  the  commands  of  God,  and  God  turned 
away  from  them. 

They  kept  not  all  the  words  of  God — were  deceived,  de- 
ceived unto  sickness ; 

They  kept  not  all  the  law  of  God — were  deceived,  deceived 
unto  death.' 

"  The  languages  of  both  tribes  have  been 
reduced  to  writing,  and  various  works  pre- 
pared in  the  two  idioms.  In  the  Sgau,  a  dic- 
tionary and  grammar  have  been  printed ;  the 
whole  Bible  has  been  translated ;  two  editions 
of  the  New  Testament;  one  of  Genesis,  Exo- 
dus, and  Psalms,  printed ;  and  between  thirty 
and  forty  other  books.  In  the  Pwo,  a  gram- 
mar, a  small  vocabulary,  and  about  half  the 
New  Testament,  have  been  printed,  and  less 


300  APPENDIX. 

than  a  dozen  other  works.  Newspapers  are 
also  printed  in  both  dialects,  and  in  Burmese. 
In  the  Tenasserim  provinces  alone,  more  than 
fifty  different  villages  and  hamlets  have  been 
occupied  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period  by 
native  assistants,  under  the  direction  of  the 
missionaries,  most  of  whom  have  had  charge 
of  schools." — Rev.  F.  Maso?i. 


APPENDIX.  301 


III. 

THE   POONGHEES, 

"!N  Pegu  they  have  many  Ntallipoies,  or 
priests,  which  preach  against  all  abuses.  Many 
men  resort  unto  them.  When  they  enter  into 
their  Kiack  (Kyaong) — that  is  to  say,  their 
holy  place  or  temple — at  the  door  there  is  a 
great  jar  of  water  with  a  cock  or  ladle  in  it, 
and  there  they  wash  their  feet,  and  then  they 
enter  in,  and  lift  up  their  hands  to  their  heads, 
first  to  their  preacher  and  then  to  the  sun,  and 
so  sit  down. 

"  The  tallipoies  go  very  strangely  appareled, 
with  one  gamboline,  or  thin  cloth,  next  to  their 
body,  of  a  brown  color;  another  of  yellow, 
doubled  many  times  on  their  shoulder;  and 
these  two  be  girded  to  them  with  a  broad 
girdle  ;  and  they  have  a  skin  of  leather  hanging 
on  a  string  about  their  necks,  whereupon  they 
sit  bareheaded  and  barefooted — for  none  of 
them  weareth  shoes — with  their  right  arms 
bare,  and  a  great  broad  sombrero,  or  shadow, 
in  their  hands,  to  defend  them  in  the  summer 
from  the  sun,  and  in  the  winter  from  the  rain. 


302  APPENDIX. 

"When  the  tallipoies,  or  priests,  take  their 
orders,  first  they  go  to  school  until  they  be 
twenty  years  old  or  more,  and  then  they  come 
before  a  tallipoie  appointed  for  that  purpose, 
whom  they  call  a  Rawli :  he  is  of  the  chiefest 
and  most  learned,  and  he  opposeth  them,  and 
afterwards  examineth  them  many  times,  wheth- 
er they  will  leave  their  friends,  and  the  com- 
pany of  all  women,  and  take  upon  them  the 
habit  of  a  tallipoie.  If  any  be  content,  then  he 
rideth  upon  a  horse  about  the  streets,  very 
richly  appareled,  with  drums  and  pipes,  to 
show  that  he  leaveth  the  riches  of  the  world  to 
be  a  tallipoie.  In  a  few  days  he  is  carried  upon 
a  thing  like  a  horse-litter,  which  they  call  a 
Serion,  upon  ten  or  twelve  men's  shoulders,  in 
the  apparel  of  a  tallipoie,  with  pipes  and  drums 
and  many  tallipoies  with  him,  and  all  his 
friends ;  and  so  they  go  with  him  to  his  house, 
which  standeth  upon  the  town,  and  then  they 
leave  him. 

"  Every  one  of  them  hath  his  house,  which 
is  very  little,  set  upon  six  or  eight  posts,  and 
they  go  up  to  them  with  a  ladder  of  twelve  or 
fourteen  staves.  Their  houses  be,  for  the  most 
part,  by  the  highway's  side,  and  among  the 
trees,  and  in  the  woods. 

"And  they  go  with  a  great  pot  made  of 
wood  or  fine  earth,  and  covered,  tied  with  a 


APPENDIX.  303 

broad  girdle  upon  their  shoulder,  which  cometh 
under  their  arm,  wherewith  they  go  to  beg 
their  victuals,  which  is  rice,  fish,  and  herbs. 
They  demand  nothing,  but  come  to  the  door, 
and  the  people  presently  do  give  them,  some 
one  thing  and  some  another ;  and  they  put  all 
together  in  their  pot ;  for  they  say  they  must  eat 
of  their  alms  and  therewith  content  themselves. 

"  They  keep  their  feasts  by  the  moon ;  and 
when  it  is  new  moon,  they  keep  their  greatest 
feast,  and  then  the  people  send  other  things  to 
that  kiack,  or  church,  of  which  they  be.  And 
then  all  the  tallipoies  do  meet,  which  be  of 
that  church,  and  eat  the  victuals  which  are 
sent  them. 

"When  the  tallipoies  do  preach,  many  of 
the  people  carry  them  gifts  into  the  pulpit 
where  they  sit  and  preach ;  and  there  is  one 
which  sitteth  by  them  to  take  that  which  the 
people  bring.  It  is  divided  among  them.  They 
have  none  other  ceremonies  nor  service  that  I 
could  see,  but  only  preaching." — Ralph  Fitch, 
a  London  Merchant. 


304  APPENDIX. 


IV. 

BURMESE   LAW, 

"  All  writers  are  unanimous  in  the  cry  that 
there  is  no  potentate  upon  earth  equally  despot- 
ic with  the  Lord  of  Burmah.  There  is  no  dis- 
guise about  the  fact,  and  he  openly  asserts  in 
his  titles,  that  he  is  lord,  ruler,  and  sole  pos- 
sessor of  the  lives,  persons,  and  property  of  his 
subjects.  He  advances  and  degrades  ;  his  word 
alone  can  promote  a  beggar  to  the  highest  rank, 
and  his  word  can  also  utterly  displace  the  proud- 
est officer  of  his  court.  His  people  is  a  capa- 
cious store-house,  whence  he  obtains  tools  to 
work  his  will.  As  soon  as  any  person  becomes 
distinguished  by  his  wealth  or  influence,  then 
does  he  pay  the  penalty  with  his  life.  He  is 
apprehended  on  some  supposed  crime,  and  is 
never  heard  of  more.  Every  Burman  is  born 
the  king's  slave,  and  it  is  an  honor  to  the 
subject  to  be  so  called  by  his  sovereign. 

"  It  is?  however,  an  honor,  both  to  the  insti- 
tutor  of  the  Burman  law,  and  the  sovereign, 
who,  though  absolute,  obeyed  it,  to  mention 
that  no  married  woman  can  be  seized  on  by  the 


APPENDIX.  305 

emissaries  of  the  king.  This,  of  course,  leads 
the  Burmese  to  contract  marriages  very  early, 
either  actually  or  fictitiously. 

"  The  property  of  persons  who  die  without 
heirs  is  swept  into  the  coffers  of  the  State,  and 
by  law,  the  property  of  unmarried  foreigners 
is  subject  to  the  same  regulation  upon  their 
death.  Jetsam  and  flotsam  belong  to  the  king. 
He  alone  decides  upon  peace  and  war,  brings 
the  population  to  the  rescue.  All  serve — all 
are  conscripts.  The  only  effectual  restraint, 
as  Crawfurd  remarks,  on  the  excesses  of  mal- 
administration, is  the  apprehension  of  insurrec- 
tion. 

"  However,  notwithstanding  that  he  is  ac- 
knowledged as  absolute,  he  has  two  nominal 
councils, — a  public  one  and  a  cabinet.  But  he 
is  neither  bound  to  abide  by  their  advice — nor 
does  he.  His  measures  are  predetermined,  and, 
should  they  prove  unwilling  to  give  an  imme- 
diate and  unconditional  assent,  he  has  been 
known  to  chase  his  ministers  from  his  presence, 
with  a  drawn  sword. 

"  The  workman  who  built  the  present  palace, 
committed  some  professional  mistake  in  the 
construction  of  the  spire.  The  king  remon- 
strated with  him,  saying  that  it  would  not 
stand.  The  architect  pertinaciously  insisted 
upon  its  stability  and  sufficiency,  and  was 


306  APPENDIX. 

committed  for  contumacy.  Shortly  afterward 
the  spire  fell  in  a  thunder-storm,  and  about  the 
same  time  accounts  were  received  at  court,  of 
the  arrival  of  the  British  expedition ;  upon 
which  the  architect  was  sent  for  from  prison, 
taken  to  the  place  of  execution,  and  forthwith 
decapitated.  This,  although  upon  a  small  scale, 
is  a  fair  example  both  of  the  despotism  and 
superstition  by  which  this  people  are  borne 
down. 

"  On  another  occasion,  the  king,  for  a  very 
slight  offense,  had  forty  of  his  highest  officers 
laid  on  their  faces  in  the  public  street,  before 
the  palace  wall — kept  for  hours  in  a  broiling 
sun  with  a  beam  extended  across  their  bodies." 

The  following  is  the  form  of  address  which 
an  English  envoy  received  with  the  recommend- 
ation that  he  should  pronounce  it  before  the 
king: 

" '  Placing  above  our  heads  the  golden  majesty 
of  the  Mighty  Lord,  the  Possessor  of  the  mines 
of  rubies,  amber,  gold,  silver,  and  all  kinds  of 
metal ;  of  the  Lord,  under  whose  command  are 
innumerable  soldiers,  generals,  and  captains  ;  of 
the  Lord  who  is  King  of  many  countries  and 
provinces,  and  Emperor  over  many  Rulers  and 
Princes  who  wait  round  his  throne  with  the 
badges  of  his  authority ;  of  the  Lord,  who  is 
adorned  with  the  greatest  power,  wisdom, 


APPENDIX.  307 

knowledge,  prudence,  foresight,  etc. ;  of  the 
Lord,  who  is  rich  in  the  possession  of  elephants, 
and  horses,  and  in  particular  is  the  Lord  of 
many  White  Elephants ;  of  the  Lord  who  is 
the  greatest  of  kings,  the  most  just  and  the 
most  religious,  the  master  of  life  and  death  ; 
we  his  slaves,  the  Governor  of  Bengal,  the  offi- 
cers and  administrators  of  the  Company,  bowing 
and  lowering  our  heads  under  the  sole  of  his 
royal  golden  foot,  do  present  to  him  with  the 
greatest  veneration,  this  our  humble  petition.' 

"  Crawfurd  and  Sangermano  mention  in- 
stances of  the  strange  proceedings  of  the  Bur- 
man  courts : — ' 

'  In  1817,  an  old  Burmese  woman,  in  the 
service  of  a  European  gentleman,  was  cited  be- 
fore the  Rung-d'hau,  or  Court  of  Justice,  of  Ran- 
goon. Her  master  appeared  on  her  behalf,  and 
was  informed  that  her  offense  consisted  in  having 
neglected  to  report  a  theft  committed  upon  her- 
self three  years  before,  by  which  the  government 
officers  were  defrauded  of  the  fees  and  profits 
which  ought  to  have  accrued  from  the  investigation 
or  trial.  On  receiving  this  information,  he  was 
about  to  retire,  in  order  to  make  arrangements 
to  exonerate  her,  when  he  was  seized  by  two 
messengers  of  the  court,  and  informed,  that  by 
appearing  in  the  business  he  had  rendered  him- 
self responsible,  and  could  not  be  released, 


308  APPENDIX. 

unless  some  other  individual  were  left  in  pledge 
for  him,  until  the  old  woman's  person  were 
produced.  A  Burman  lad,  his  servant,  who 
accompanied  him,  was  accordingly  left  in  the 
room.  In  an  hour  he  returned  with  the  accused, 
and  found,  that  in  the  interval,  the  lad  left  in 
pledge  had  been  put  into  the  stocks,  his  ankles 
squeezed  in  them,  and  by  this  means,  a  little 
money  which  he  had  about  his  person,  and  a 
new  handkerchief,  extorted  from  him.  The 
old  woman  was  now  put  into  the  stocks  in  her 
turn,  and  detained  there  until  all  were  paid, 
when  she  was  discharged  without  any  investiga- 
twn  whatever  into  the  theft. 

"  A  poor  widow,  who  was  hard  pinched  to 
pay  the  tax  demanded  of  her,  was  obliged  to 
sell  her  only  daughter  to  obtain  the  sum.  The 
money  was  received,  and,  heavy  at  heart,  she 
returned  home  and  put  it  in  a  box  in  her  house, 
intending  to  lament  that  night  and  carry  the 
money  to  her  inexorable  creditor  in  the  morning. 
But  the  measure  of  her  sorrows  was  not  yet 
full.  Some  thieves  broke  into  the  house  and 
stole  the  money.  In  the  morning  she  discover- 
ed her  loss,  and  this  additional  circumstance 
caused  the  bounds  of  her  grief  to  flow  even 
beyond  that  of  silence,  and,  sitting  before  her 
door,  she  gave  herself  up  to  loud  lamentations. 
As  she  was  weeping,  an  emissary  of  the  city 


APPENDIX.  309 

magistrate  passed  by,  and  inquired  into  the 
cause  of  her  sorrow.  He,  upon  hearing  the  sad 
story,  related  the  matter  to  his  master.  The 
poor  creature  was  then  summoned  to  the  Court 
of  Jmtice,  and  commanded  to  deliver  up  the 
thief.  Of  course,  this  was  impossible.  She 
was  detained  in  the  stocks  until  she  could 
scrape  together  money  enough  to  satisfy  the 
rapacity  of  the  judge. 

"Sometimes  these  affairs  are  very  comical: 
"  A  woman  employed  in  cooking  fish  for 
dinner  was  called  away  for  an  instant.  The 
cat,  watching  her  opportunity,  seized  a  half- 
roasted  fish  and  ran  out  of  the  house.  The 
woman  immediately  ran  after  the  cat,  exclaim- 
ing :  '  The  cat  has  stolen  my  fish !'  A  few 
days  after  she  was  summoned  before  the  magis- 
trate, who  demanded  the  thief  at  her  hands. 
It  was  of  no  use  that  she  explained  that  the 
thief  was  a  cat.  His  time  was  valuable,  and 
the  expenses  of  the  court  must  be  paid." — 
Mackenzie's  "  Burmah  and  the  Burmese.^ 


310  APPENDIX. 


V. 

IMPERIAL  PEGU, 

"  PEGU  is  a  city,  strong,  and  very  fair,  with 
walls  of  stone,  and  great  ditches  round  about  it. 

"There  are  two  towns,  the  old  and  the  new. 
In  the  old  town  are  all  the  merchant  strangers, 
and  very  many  merchants  of  the  country.  All 
the  goods  are  sold  in  the  old  town,  which  is 
very  great,  and  hath  many  suburbs  round  about 
it ;  and  all  the  houses  are  made  of  canes,  which 
they  call  bamboo,  and  be  covered  with  straw. 
In  your  house  you  have  a  warehouse,  or 
godon,  which  is  made  of  brick,  to  put  your 
goods  in,  for  oftentimes  they  take  fire,  and 
burn,  in  an  hour,  four  or  five  hundred  houses  ; 
so  that  if  the  godon  were  not,  you  should  be 
in  danger  to  have  all  burnt  in  a  trice. 

"  In  the  new  town  is  the  king  and  all  his 
nobility  and  gentry.  It  is  a  city  very  great 
and  populous,  and  is  made  square,  and  with 
fair  walls,  and  a  great  ditch  round  about  it,  full 
of  water,  with  many  crocodiles  in  it.  It  hath 
twenty  gates,  and  they  be  made  of  stone :  for 
every  square,  five  gates.  There  are  also  many 


APPENDIX.  311 

turrets  for  sentinels  to  watch,  made  of  wood, 
and  gilded  with  gold  very  fair.  The  streets  are 
the  fairest  that  ever  I  saw — as  straight  as  a 
line  from  one  gate  to  another,  and  so  broad 
that  ten  or  twenty  men  may  ride  apart  through 
them.  On  both  sides  them,  at  every  man's 
door,  is  set  a  palm-tree — which  is  the  nut-tree — 
which  makes  a  very  fair  show,  and  a  very  com- 
modious shadow,  so  that  a  man  may  walk  in 
the  shade  all  day.  The  houses  be  made  of 
wood,  and  covered  with  tile.  The  king's  house 
is  in  the  middle  of  the  city,  and  is  walled  and 
ditched  round  about ;  and  the  buildings  within 
are  made  of  wood,  very  sumptuously  gilded ; 
and  great  workmanship  is  upon  the  fore-front, 
which  is  likewise  very  costly  gilded.  And  the 
house  wherein  his  pagoda  or  idol  standeth,  is 
covered  with  tiles  of  silver,  and  all  the  walls 
are  gilded  with  gold. 

"Within  the  first  gate  of  the  king's  house  is 
a  great  large  room,  on  both  sides  whereof  are 
houses  made  for  the  king's  elephants,  which  be 
marvelous  great  and  fair,  and  are  brought  up 
to  wars,  and  in  service  of  the  king :  and  among 
the  rest  he  has  four-  white  elephants,  which  are 
very  strange  and  rare ;  for  there  is  none  other 
king  hath  them  but  he :  if  any  other  king  hath 
one,  he  will  send  to  him  for  it." — Ralph  Fitch, 
a  London  Merchant. 


321  BROADWAY,  SEPTEMBER  1,  1856. 


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ORIENTAL  ACQUAINTANCE ;  IN  A  SERIES  OF  LETTERS  FROM 

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LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA,  AS  NOTICED  AND  NOTED  BY  A 
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BRITTANY  AND  LA  VENDEE;  TALES  AND  SKETCHES.  With  a 
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